Edwin Fischer - Concert Performances & Broadca - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The new issue No. 17 from the series InchThe Welte Mignon Mystery,Inch being introduced today, differs from the earlier ones in regard to it's program, among other things. Edwin Fischer chose only pieces by Bach, Beethoven and Mozart for his piano-roll recordings, probably recorded for the Welte company in 1923 (possibly already in 1909). He played none of the encores customary at the time and no work of his own. It is therefore obvious that the Welte technology was also suitable for larger, longer works. The Sonatas Op. 10, No. 3 and Op. 110 of Beethoven - distributed over several rolls, but brought together on our CD - are created anew in their entirety before our ears as coherent structures with comprehensive arcs of tension. Edwin Fischer came to terms with the music of the very greatest composers; on his Welte recordings, at least, there was no room for the salon pieces so beloved during this period. In this respect, too, the exceptional quality of his personality is readily apparent.

Beethoven / Fischer / Furtwangler - Sym [COMPACT DISCS] date 06/28/2000

This features some of Fischer's best-known recordings and also his rarest. His pre-war Schubert recordings are classics of the gramophone and have been almost continuously available. APR's original 1997 transfers of the Impromptus had the benefit of being taken from vinyl pressings of the 78rpm masters and this reissue has allowed us to improve them even further, presenting these gems in the best possible sound. Fischer's recordings of Brahms and Schumann, on the other hand are much less known and indeed his masterly performance of the 1st Brahms Piano Quartet, recorded in Germany just after the start of the war with principals from the Edwin Fischer Chamber Orchestra, and only issued there, is extremely rare. Not much better known are the very fine Brahms group from 1947, and from 1949 we have the Brahms F minor Sonata and the Schumann Fantasy, his only Schumann recording, but a work he described as Incha symbol of the soul of the piano.Inch