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Geza Anda rides again

Leonard Bogat | Philadelphia, PA USA | 05/02/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have always loved Geza Anda's playing. And I will always love his playing. He was a great pianist who belonged to an age which included the likes of Dinu Lipatti, Yves Nat, Samson Francois, Rudolf Serkin and Robert Casadesus, and whose relationship with the music was a thing of beauty.



One of the first records I ever owned was Anda playing the Liszt E flat concerto. There was a relaxation about it that thrills me still. On the back was a photo of Anda holding a cigarette, 1950 style, the very look (and sound) of a gentleman pianist. Scales, arpeggios, thirds, octaves? Who cares, the music's the thing. These were descendants of Cortot, Edwin Fischer, Gieseking and Kempff, and they made lovely music.



There were the graceful women pianists too, of that generation, Novaes, Lympany, Annie Fischer, and their glory was a rediscovery of the music they were playing by taking a step back from the "moi generation" that preceded them.



This was the last generation of great pianists prior to the advent of the musical-industrial complex. Casadesus and Serkin benefited from it - Columbia Records, Ormandy, Szell, Philadelphia, Cleveland, the American Musical Renaissance.



Sadly, the immense and entirely deserved popular adulation of the others just faded away - even Lipatti whose cult-like following has kept his name and glorious playing somewhat to the fore.



Well, I am delighted to say that over the years many of Anda's recording have been re-issued on CD. But these recordings from the 1950's are just out of this world. Buy the 2-disc set and start with disc 2. Listen to the Brahms Intermezzo a few times to allow your ear to get accustomed to his accent. Then lose yourselves in Schumann's Carnaval followed by the Chopin Etudes from Op. 25, to die for, and the glorious world of Geza Anda.



Such elegant playing. Such relaxed joy in the music making. Such a tragedy that he left us so early."