Great Pianists of the 20th Century - Géza Anda
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Béla Bartók, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Fryderyk Chopin
Label: Great Pianists of the 20th Century
Magazine Review Date: 10/1999
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 155
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: 456 772-2PM2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 |
Béla Bartók, Composer
Béla Bartók, Composer Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra Ferenc Fricsay, Conductor Géza Anda, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 |
Béla Bartók, Composer
Béla Bartók, Composer Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra Ferenc Fricsay, Conductor Géza Anda, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 |
Béla Bartók, Composer
Béla Bartók, Composer Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra Ferenc Fricsay, Conductor Géza Anda, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 21, 'Elvira Madigan' |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
Géza Anda, Piano Salzburg Camerata Academica Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 1 in E flat, Op. 18 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 2 in A flat, Op. 34/1 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 3 in A minor, Op. 34/2 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 4 in F, Op. 34/3 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 5 in A flat, Op. 42 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 6 in D flat, Op. 64/1 (Minute) |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 7 in C sharp minor, Op. 64/2 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 8 in A flat, Op. 64/3 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 9 in A flat, Op. 69/1 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 10 in B minor, Op. 69/2 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 11 in G flat, Op. 70/1 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 12 in F minor, Op. 70/2 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 13 in D flat, Op. 70/3 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Géza Anda, Piano |
Author: Bryce Morrison
Philips’s tribute to a great artist incomparable in Bartok and no less so in Schumann is marred by a selection of bewildering eccentricity. True, no pianist played the concertos Bartok concertos with such matchless precision and elegance, but the accompanying choice of 13 of Chopin’s waltzes (the omission of No. 14 is unexplained), made when Anda was already ill and dispirited, and a Mozart concerto performance that hardly suggests his glory in its prime, is doubly inexplicable when you consider his rich and scintillating recorded legacy (I am thinking particularly of the Brahms Paganini Variations, Schumann’s Etudes symphoniques, Kreisleriana and Carnaval, the Liszt Sonata and, by way of bonne-bouche, the Delibes-Dohnanyi Valse lente all, thankfully, available on Testament, 10/95). More positively, it is impossible to celebrate sufficiently Anda’s and Fricsay’s partnership in Bartok. Anda famously played all three concertos in one concert, presenting their spiral from savage iconoclasm through neo-baroque virtuosity to autumnal joy and reflection with unflagging brio and finesse, and his Edinburgh Festival performance of the Second Concerto quickly acquired legendary status. His matchless clarity and rhythmic verve colour every page, and in the slow movements of Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 his timing, like that of a great actor, and unique tonal sheen lend a remarkable atmosphere to those evocations of the Puszta, the mysterious Hungarian plains, whose seemingly limitless expanse is contrasted by the hyperactivity of their ‘night music’. Here, Anda’s differentiation between, say, piano, pianissimo and ppp is uncannily precise, his articulation of the fugue from the Third Concerto not only razor-sharp but a wonder of dancing vivacity and refinement; a far cry from so many less subtle and bludgeoning alternatives.
All the more reason, then, to regret the second disc and seek elsewhere for Anda’s true quality. A sense of incongruity is confirmed by Peter Cosse’s ‘wish-fulfilment’ notes which equate Anda’s lethargy in the Chopin waltzes with a ‘pensiveness’ ‘where the pulse rate has been slowed down almost to the point of dying away altogether.’ This leads him to compare Anda to Lipatti (whose performance of the waltzes, despite no less tragic circumstances, were of the most life-affirming ease and vitality) before celebrating Anda’s Schumann, which fails to appear on either disc. From Lipatti, Chopin’s point and vivacity seem leagues away from Anda’s exhausted and wraith-like utterance. Naturally, with a pianist of this calibre there are many passing felicities, and the same is true of his Mozart. Yet in K467, of passing Elvira Madigan fame, there is no comparison with Annie Fischer, for example (whose artistry is so unforgivably absent from Philips’s series). Oddly stiff and inflexible, there is a suggestion that Anda, despite his latter-day speciality in the Mozart concertos, found himself dangerously exposed in such music and had not yet come completely to terms with their elusive idiom. The cadenzas are by Anda, the recorded refurbishments are impressive (and never more so than in those superb 1959-60 Bartok recordings). The first disc is indispensable, the second a missed opportunity.'
All the more reason, then, to regret the second disc and seek elsewhere for Anda’s true quality. A sense of incongruity is confirmed by Peter Cosse’s ‘wish-fulfilment’ notes which equate Anda’s lethargy in the Chopin waltzes with a ‘pensiveness’ ‘where the pulse rate has been slowed down almost to the point of dying away altogether.’ This leads him to compare Anda to Lipatti (whose performance of the waltzes, despite no less tragic circumstances, were of the most life-affirming ease and vitality) before celebrating Anda’s Schumann, which fails to appear on either disc. From Lipatti, Chopin’s point and vivacity seem leagues away from Anda’s exhausted and wraith-like utterance. Naturally, with a pianist of this calibre there are many passing felicities, and the same is true of his Mozart. Yet in K467, of passing Elvira Madigan fame, there is no comparison with Annie Fischer, for example (whose artistry is so unforgivably absent from Philips’s series). Oddly stiff and inflexible, there is a suggestion that Anda, despite his latter-day speciality in the Mozart concertos, found himself dangerously exposed in such music and had not yet come completely to terms with their elusive idiom. The cadenzas are by Anda, the recorded refurbishments are impressive (and never more so than in those superb 1959-60 Bartok recordings). The first disc is indispensable, the second a missed opportunity.'
Great Pianists of the 20th Century - Géza Anda
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.