Prodigy Years (1914-1940)

Ovation Years (1941-1968)

© http://yuanhuang.wix.com/annie-fischer /All Rights Reserved

Annie resumed public performance about half a year after Aladar's death, yet she refrained from making any recordings for almost a decade except occasional studio recording sessions for radio broadcasting purposes. Her last and the only recording project since 1968 was the complete Beethoven sonatas cycle with Hungaroton in the late 1970s. She was never interested in learing or playing music pieces as a complete set, except the Chopin 24 Preludes, 4 Ballades, and Schubert's Impromptus. She did not even play all the Beethoven concertos (she never play the second piano concert in B-flat Major). However, the complete Beethoven sonatas were always something of her enthusiasm. Her first participation in a complete Beethoven piano sonatas cycle concerts was as early as in 1949 in Budapest, partnered with the legendary Hungarian blind pianist Imre Ungar, who was also a life-time friend of her. In 1969-70, she took part in another Beethoven sonatas cycle at the Royal Concertgebouw, this time together with other great ones: Claudio Arrau, Eduardo del Pueyo, Nikita Magaloff, Robert Casadesus, Rudolf Firkusny and Daniel Barenboim. From Dec. 19, 1976 to May 13, 1977, Annie Fischer undertook her first time Beethoven sonatas cycle alone which was so intensive that she gave two complete cycles (eight recitals each) in only half a year! This event was also the trigger of her recording of them with Hungaroton later the same year. The Beethoven Sonatas project went on over a decade but Annie was never satisfied by what she had done. She continuously edited and re-recorded to seek for a better reading of them that match what is in her mind. Although it was commonly known that she refused to publish them during her lifetime, yet she did mention (many times in her last years) the set could be released after her death, according to the latest Hungaroton “Encore” CD booklet written by Janos Macsai. Thanks to the wise decision from Hungaroton, this compilation was eventually surfaced and remains one of my top pick of these "New Testament" of classical piano literature, as described by Hans von Bulow.

© http://yuanhuang.wix.com/annie-fischer /All Rights Reserved

Annie Fischer's international engagement reached another peak since the 1970's and she once again sat on the juries of 1972's Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium. She constantly revisited some of her favorite cities, especially Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Edinburgh, Vienna, Paris and Milan. In certain years she even performed more abroad than in her native country. Her profound artistic consciousness and purity in musical approach were her characteristics that captured critics and audiences attention. People frequently referred her as one of the greatest from the golden age of piano. Although she first appearance in Carnegie Hall was dated back to 1961, yet it was not until more than three decades later did she make her Carnegie Hall "Recital Debut" as part of 1982’s North American tour. The recital tickets were sold poorly in the begging but was almost sold out with in last couple days before the concert. However, in fact no matter the tour in 1960's or in 1980's, her style was not so welcomed by many local critics who were not familiar with her. For her 1961 US debut with Szell in Carnegie Hall, the authoritative critic Harold Schoenberg wrote a very natural (if not considered as negative) review in the New York Times claiming that he did not like her “old-fashion middle-European” style much. This was probably why Harold's famous book "The Great Pianists" (first published in 1983 and revised in late 1980's) did not mention a single word of her.  The mild reaction from the press led to a long-time negligence by the Americans of her real artistry and her being a great pianist even till nowadays. Thanks to Radio-Canada, her 1984's Montreal recital was preserved and released on CD by Palexa label. It was important not only because it captured one of her few existing post-1980 live recital performance, also it offered by far her only known recording of Schubert's Sonata D.959. She visited Japan rather late. In 1980 she visited Japan for the first time as a juror in the First Japan International Music Competition and years later she gave concerts in Tokyo. She enjoyed performing in Japan and  thus kept returning during her final decade. On the other hand, the Japanese audiences loved her as well . Many of her last decade performances was archived in Japan with some already released on CDs.

© http://yuanhuang.wix.com/annie-fischer /All Rights Reserved

Annie Fischer’s very last public concert took place on Oct. 24, 1994 in Szolnok, a small town of Hungary. She played a Mozart Piano Concerto with several encores for the passionate audiences. This last concert was privately recorded by her long-time fan Anna Deveny and the memorable last encore of Chopin's Ballade No.3 in A flat major was released by Hungaroton. She was actually considering another visit to Japan but her sudden break-down in health ended the plan early. Annie passed away on Apr. 10, 1995 in Budapest, where she was born, where she loved lot and spent most of the time and where she finally rest in peace.

© http://yuanhuang.wix.com/annie-fischer /All Rights Reserved 

© http://yuanhuang.wix.com/annie-fischer /All Rights Reserved

Yuan Huang
Nov.26, 2014

(Revised Mar.6, 2016)