Annie Fischer was a Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 classical pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

.

Biography

Fischer was born in Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

, and studied in that city at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music

Franz Liszt Academy of Music

The Franz Liszt Academy of Music is a concert hall and music conservatory in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875...

 with Ernő Dohnányi

Erno Dohnányi

Ernő Dohnányi was a Hungarian conductor, composer, and pianist. He used the German form of his name Ernst von Dohnányi for most of his published compositions....

. In 1933 she won the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition

International Franz Liszt Piano Competition

The International Franz Liszt Piano Competition , a member of WFIMC, is an international piano competition.The Competition is held in Utrecht in the Netherlands. It first took place in 1986, one hundred years after the death of Franz Liszt...

 in her native city. Throughout her career she played mainly in Europe and Australia, but was seldom heard in the United States until late in her lifetime, having concertized only twice across the Atlantic.

She was married to influential critic and musicologist Aladar Toth (1898–1968); she is buried next to him in Budapest.

Fischer, who was Jewish, fled with her husband to Sweden in 1940, after Hungary during World War II

Hungary during World War II

Hungary during World War II was a member of the Axis powers. In the 1930s, the Kingdom of Hungary relied on increased trade with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to pull itself out of the Great Depression. By 1938, Hungarian politics and foreign policy had become increasingly pro-Fascist Italian and...

 joined the Axis powers

Axis Powers

The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

. After the war, in 1946, she and Toth returned to Budapest. She died there in 1995.

Her playing has been praised for its "characteristic intensity" and "effortless manner of phrasing" (David Hurwitz), as well as its technical power and spiritual depth. She was greatly admired by such contemporaries as Otto Klemperer

Otto Klemperer

Otto Klemperer was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century.-Biography:Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany...

 and Sviatoslav Richter

Sviatoslav Richter

Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was a Soviet pianist well known for the depth of his interpretations, virtuoso technique, and vast repertoire. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Childhood:...

; Richter wrote that "Annie Fischer is a great artist imbued with a spirit of greatness and genuine profundity." The Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini

Maurizio Pollini

Maurizio Pollini is an Italian classical pianist.- Biography and career :Pollini was born in Milan to the Italian rationalist architect Gino Pollini. Maurizio studied piano first with Carlo Lonati, until the age of 13, then with Carlo Vidusso, until he was 18...

 praised the "childlike simplicity, immediacy and wonder" he found in her playing. Her interpretations of Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

, Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

, Brahms

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...

, Schubert

Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...

 and Schumann

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....

, as well as Hungarian composers like Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók

Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...

 continue to receive the highest praise from pianists and critics.

Fischer made significant studio recordings in the 1950s with Otto Klemperer

Otto Klemperer

Otto Klemperer was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century.-Biography:Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany...

 and Wolfgang Sawallisch

Wolfgang Sawallisch

Wolfgang Sawallisch is a retired German conductor and pianist.-Biography:Sawallisch was born in Munich, and studied composition and pianoforte there privately: at the conclusion of the war, in 1946 he continued his studies at the Munich High School for Music and passed his final examination for...

, but felt that any interpretation created in the absence of an audience would necessarily be artificially constricting, since no interpretation was ever "finished." Her legacy today thus includes many live concert recordings that have been released on CD and DVD (including a performance of Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto available on YouTube, and a Beethoven Third Concerto with Antal Doráti

Antal Doráti

Antal Doráti, KBE was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1947.-Biography:...

 conducting). Her greatest legacy, however, is a studio-made integral set of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas. She worked on this set for 15 years beginning in 1977. A self-critical perfectionist, she did not allow the set to be released in her lifetime but, since her death, it has been released on compact disc and widely praised.

Criticism

• "The current issue of Opus lists 20 complete sets of the Beethoven sonatas, and none of them is entirely satisfactory. This is not surprising; these 32 extraordinary compositions range from strict classicism through passionate romanticism to the most austere expressions of the composer's thought, from quite simple pieces to those demanding the utmost virtuosity, and nobody can be equally effective in all of them. But some come closer than others, and Annie Fischer comes closest of all."

• "Shortly after Fischer's death in 1995, the Hungaroton label issued a complete recording of Fischer in the 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Fischer had been working on this set for the better part of two decades, but prior to that time she had not seen fit to release these recordings. Fischer was an intense and powerful pianist who responded most strongly to her own inner sense of inspiration and drive. In works where this approach was an advantage, such as the "Hammerklavier" Sonata of Beethoven, Fischer was second to none."

Recordings

Annie Fischer's recordings have been released by several major record companies, which include: BBC Records

BBC Records

BBC Records is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation founded in the 1960s to exploit the corporation's audio archive for both educational and commercial purposes....

, Doremi, EMI Classics

EMI Classics

EMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....

, Hungaroton

Hungaroton

Hungaroton was the one and only record and music publisher company in Hungary for about 40 years.Hungaroton was founded in 1951, since then, its only competitors in the Hungarian music market were record labels like Melodiya, Supraphon and Eterna from other socialist countries. Previously called...

, Qualiton, Orfeo

Orfeo

L'Orfeo , sometimes called L'Orfeo, favola in musica, is an early Baroque opera by Claudio Monteverdi, with a libretto by Alessandro Striggio. It is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus, and tells the story of his descent to Hades and his fruitless attempt to bring his dead bride Eurydice back to...

, Palexa, Q Disc and Urania

Urania

Urania was, in Greek mythology, the muse of astronomy. Some accounts list her as the mother of the musician Linus. She is usually depicted with a globe in her left hand. She is able to foretell the future by the arrangement of the stars...

.

Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

• Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15 (1)
• Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 (3)
• Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 "Emperor" (1)
• Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1 (2)
• Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 14, No. 2 (2)
• Sonata No. 11 in B flat major, Op. 22 (2)
• Sonata No. 12 in A flat major, Op. 26 "Funeral March" (1)
• Sonata No. 13 in E flat major, Op. 27, No. 1 "Quasi una fantasia" (2)
• Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 "Moonlight" (4)
• Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 "Pastoral" (2)
• Sonata No. 16 in G major, Op. 31, No. 1 (3)
• Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2 "Tempest" (2)
• Sonata No. 18 in E flat major, Op. 31, No. 3 (2)
• Sonata No. 19 in G minor, Op. 49, No. 1 (2)
• Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 2, No. 2 (2)
• Sonata No. 20 in G major, Op. 49, No. 2 (2)
• Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 "Waldstein" (2)
• Sonata No. 22 in F major, Op. 54 (2)
• Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata" (2)
• Sonata No. 24 in F sharp major, Op. 78 (2)
• Sonata No. 25 in G major, Op. 79 (2)
• Sonata No. 26 in E flat major, Op. 81a "Les Adieux" (2)
• Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90 (2)
• Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101 (2)
• Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 "Hammerklavier" (2)
• Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 2, No. 3 (2)
• Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109 (2)
• Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110 (2)
• Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 (3)
• Sonata No. 4 in E flat major, Op. 7 (2)
• Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10, No. 1 (2)
• Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10, No. 2 (2)
• Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10, No. 3 (3)
• Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 "Pathétique" (3)
• Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14, No. 1 (2)
• Variations (32) in C minor on an Original Theme, WoO 80 (1)

Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

• Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K 466. (1)
• Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K 466: 2nd movement, Romanze. (4)
• Concerto No. 21 in C major, K 467 (3)
• Concerto No. 21 in C major, K 467: 2nd movement, Andante (3)
• Concerto No. 22 in E flat major, K 482 (5)
• Concerto No. 22 in E flat major, K 482: 2nd movement, Andante (1)
• Concerto No. 23 in A major, K 488: 2nd movement, Adagio (1)
• Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K 491 (1)
• Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K. 595 (1)
• Prelude and Fugue in C major, K 394 (383a) (1)
• Rondo and Orchestra in D major, K 382 (1)
• Sonata No. 12 in F major, K 332 (300k) (1)
• Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K 457 (1)

Schumann

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....

• Carnaval, Op. 9 (2)
• Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 (2)
• Kinderszenen, Op. 15 (2)
• Kreisleriana, Op. 16 (2)
• Fantasia in C major, Op. 17 (1)

Bartók

Béla Bartók

Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...

• Concerto No. 3, Sz 119 (3)
• Hungarian Peasant Songs (15) for Piano, Sz 71 (1)

Liszt

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

• Concert Etudes (3), S 144: No. 3 in D flat major, Un sospiro (1)
• Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S 124 (2)
• Grandes Etudes (6) de Paganini, S 141: No. 6 in A minor, Quasi Presto (1)
• Sonata in B minor, S 178 (1)

Schubert

Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...

• Impromptus (4), D 935/Op. 142: No. 1 in F minor (1)
• Impromptus (4), D 935/Op. 142: No. 2 in A flat major (1)
• Impromptus (4), D 935/Op. 142: No. 4 in F minor (1)
• Sonata in A major, D 959 (1)
• Sonata in B flat major, D 960 (1)

Chopin

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

• Concerto No. 1 in E minor, B 53/Op. 11 (1)
• Scherzo No. 3 in C sharp minor, B 125/Op. 39 (1)