This rare studio recording by Annie Fischer encapsulates her childlike sense of wonder
ARCHIVE CHOICE
Schumann • Schubert
Schumann: Piano Sonata No. 1; Schubert: Four Impromptus D935
Annie Fischer (piano)
ICA Classics ICAC5178 62:00 mins
It’s hard to put your finger on what makes Hungarian pianist Annie Fischer’s playing so compelling. For Maurizio Pollini it was the sense of childlike simplicity, immediacy and wonder, while Sviatoslav Richter admired her spirit of greatness and genuine profundity. On one of her frequent visits to London, ahead of a Southbank recital in March 1975, the 60-year-old Fischer was persuaded by the BBC to make her only studio recording of Schumann’s First Sonata Op. 11, with some of the immediacy and spontaneity of her live performances. The determined rhythm and rhetorical power of the opening hooked me immediately; the hushed beauty of the second movement Aria is breathtaking, and while the Scherzo has a couple of jumpy moments, the performance as a whole is an essential addition to Fischer’s discography, in excellent sound. The recording of Schubert’s D935 Impromptus is narrower, but the only alternative I know is a concert bootleg in poor sound. After listening to this, you’ll know why Annie Fischer’s playing is special. ★★★★
April round-up
Mozart ’s Requiem was a special work for conductor Mariss Jansons, and while you might expect this 2017 Munich concert recording with his Bavarian forces to feel ‘old-fashioned’ compared to historically-informed options, it isn’t. Jansons’s humanity shines through every moment; the orchestral sound is sumptuous without being overweight, the chorus medium-sized and well-controlled, the climaxes dramatically potent, balanced with moments of pensive stillness. The solo team (Genia Kühmeier, Elisabeth Kulman, Mark Padmore and Adam Plachetka) is eloquent, and well-balanced. Available on CD on its own for the first time. (BR Klassik 900117) ★★★★ This is a lovely idea: take the first recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music from 1938, and surround it with tracks from each of the 16 singers for whom it was written. First Isobel Baillie’s radiant Bach-Gounod Ave Maria; Elsie Suddaby is sweet in Somervell’s Shepherd’s Cradle Song, before Eva Turner’s plangently dramatic Tosca. We follow the voices downwards: contralto Margaret Balfour as the Angel in Elgar’s Gerontius, Robert Easton and Heddle Nash in Gounod’s Faust, and bass Norman Allin singing VW’s Silent Noon, before the Serenade itself. A potent snapshot
