Search - Mozart, Fischer, Vienna Philharmonic Orch :: Edwin Fischer Plays Mozart: Piano Ctos 25 & 22

Hear The Lion's Velvet Paw

BLee | HK | 03/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"How does "the strength and softness of a lion's velvet paw" sound like? Edwin Fischer will give you the answer. His ability to balance and weigh each voice of a chord maiximizing the richness of the tone is rare, and he compounds it with a supreme eveness and a seamless legato! The result, his tone could very well outshine Arrau's had it not been restricted by the primitive recording devices.



Edwin Fischer marry "childlike simplicity to the sensitivity and wisdom of a master" ( Alfred Brendel) making his Mozart "a timeless beauty". Edwin Fischer lifts tragedy into the light, into the highest level of spirituality: the crust of the "simplicity" of Mozart's music, an another word, the smiles through tears sort of drama.



It is a well known fact that Edwin Fischer suffered from fits of nervousness which tends to pull him away from Mozart's light and aristocratic hand (or even from his spontaneity ) in a couple of phrases. But with the whole picture in view and the spirit of Mozart so vivid, what else could we ask? In any event, from his playing here you can either hear all the colours of an orhcestra or the sound that comes from another world, or both at the same time... I'm sure there are other qualities you can discover from Edwin Fischer pianism, if not , how come Andras Schiff would turn from Schnabel to Edwin Fischer and Alfred Brendel remain his faithful disciple decades afer he himself has been praised up to the sky?



I own two versions of these concerti and I find the EMI transfer too bright and too stiff. And the Appian (APR) sounds much better, both the piano and the orchestra. For the latter version, one would mistake it as a recording in early 50s and little adjustment is necessary for the enjoyment of the music.



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