His particular area was music of the Baroque and early Classical era, hence his interest in Bach. He was one of the first to start to look at performance practice of the earlier eras, joining other performers such as Arnold Dolmetsch and Alfred Deller who started to experiment with the interpretation of earlier music. We wouldn’t necessarily look at Fisher’s work today as being historically true, particularly in view of current research, but he did return to such classical norms such as conducting from the keyboard, as in this performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 with the Vienna Philharmonic.
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503: II. Finale: Allegretto (Edwin Fischer, piano; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Edwin Fischer, cond.)
In 1931, Fischer began a long association with the HMV recording company, recording for them for the next 11 years and resuming again after WWII. His recording of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier is considered a landmark – his was the first full recording and still remains one of the finest recordings of the work.
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, BWV 846-869: Prelude No. 1 in C Major, BWV 846 (Edwin Fischer, piano)
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, BWV 846-869: Fugue No. 1 in C Major, BWV 846 (Edwin Fischer, piano)
His textures are clear, he brings humour to a work that in others’ hands can become grim, and each voice is kept clear and separate.
One critic viewed Fischer as ‘represented an ideal middle ground between objective intellectualism and unabashed romanticism.’ Noted pianist and critic Paul Badura Skoda wrote of Fischer: ‘One hesitates to refer to a concert artist as a “genius”. But when Fischer played, he convinced his audiences that interpretation can and should be a creative art. In his view, to “create” and to “re-create” were practically synonymous. There were moments of indescribable emo¬tional ecstasy in his performances, moments when he became a prophet. The listener stopped taking notice of the instrument and the performer when the music began flowing directly into his soul in its own idiom, pro¬ducing a kind of religious experience.’
You May Also Like
- Forgotten Pianists: Lucette Descaves Lucette Descaves (1906-1993) was a student of Marguerite Long’s at the Paris Conservatoire.
- Forgotten Pianists: Gaby Casadesus French pianist Gaby Casadesus (1901-1999) studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Marguerite Long and was awarded the first prize in piano at age 16.
- Forgotten Pianists: Jean Doyen As with many pianists from France, Jean Doyen (1907-1982) attended the Paris Conservatoire.
- Forgotten Pianists: Jeanne-Marie Darré French pianist Jeanne-Marie Darré (1905-1999) took the works of Chopin and Liszt as her hallmark.
More Blogs
- Classical Music Unfinished and Restored IV Why did Schubert leave so many works incomplete?
- The Trinity of Music Deepen your understanding of music's fundamental elements here
- Singer Maria Malibran: Her Tortured Life and Death Read about opera's most fascinating tragedy
- Maria by Callas
“When My Enemies Stop Hissing, I Shall Know I’m Slipping” The untold story from her turbulent family relationship to her dramatic romance
No one who heard, live, any of the pianists listed – and I heard Ney, Solomon, and Bachauer in the flesh, and others on the radio, would accept they are in any way “forgotten”. Even if you only heard most of them on disc – these days easier than it ever was. And it was MORITZ Rosenthal – not “Morris”