[
Fischer at his young age ]* FISCHER, Edwin(6th Oct. 1886~24th Jan. 1960)
[ a lion's velvet paws ]
Based
on contributed material at Classical Music,
Vol.2(Sep. 1996)
Corrected at July 2000
1. Curriculum Vitae
[
Fischer at his young age ]
The minimum technique that can support the expression a professional player want is indispensable to him. However, I think many a people tends to confuse the way and the purpose. There were some professional artists who can fulfill their aims even thought their technique was not very good ; Edwin Fischer was one of them surely. It is so sufficient as to call him maestro, because he reached the aim so beautifully.
He is an artist of
monaural era. He was born in Basel, Switzerland. His father
played oboe in Municipal Orchestra and viola in amateur string
quartet. His talent appeared at four years old when he said 'That
is G' touching a note from piano. At 10 he entered Basel
Conservatory, moving to Berlin and was taught by Martin Krause -
Liszt's pupil and became Arrau's teacher later - at Stern
Conservatory(now Berlin Conservatory). He
started to teach there after graduation in 1905. Different from Backhaus, he spent much
time to teach pupils. He edited Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven's
works after original texts of them, wrote
cadenzas of Mozart's and Beethoven's Concerto, and composed his
original works such as lieds and piano works(much of them was not
published). His careers as conductor were Lübeck Gesellschaft
der Musik(1926), München Bach-Gesellschaft(1928), and
established Fischer Chamber Orchestra(many of the members were
that of the Berlin Philharmonic). In playing Bach's concertos, he
liked to conduct at piano.
He remained
at Germany in World War II, but had no suspicion of Nazi's
supporter. He was highly appreciated by good-natured
personality(When Dinu Lipatti
escaped from Romania, Fischer helped him by finding job in Swiss.
Karajan was given provisions by Fischer when he was in adversity
in Italy right after World War II). It is said that he gave
impressions of naive characters to others. Fred Gaisberg, the
first famous recording producer of HMV, pictured him as ; naive and simple, a big
blue-eyed, tousle-haired baby of a man, the type that seems to
cry out for a mother's care.1)
He moved near to lake Lucerne(Swiss) after his home was destroyed by the Allies air raid in 1942, and was naturalized to Swiss. He conducted at Lucerne Summer Festival from then on, but was tortured by chronic blood high pressure which had him give up concert appearance in 1955. He continued to teach at Lucerne Conservatory from time to time, but was almost pararalysed late several months. He passed away at a hospital in Zürich on 24th January 1960.
He was very good teacher. Demus, Badura-Skoda, Barenboim, and Brendel are among his pupils. Alfred Brendel recalls "Edwin Fischer preferred demonstration to explanation again and again he would sit down himself at the piano. Those were the greatest, the most unforgettable impressions retained by his students." Badura-Skoda said "All he did were creative. I feel his genuine talents not be eminent in concert... Too nervous, he once refused to give concert of his own." He was so nervous by stage freight when young. Judging from the articles I have, there were not many audiences that could hear him relaxed and he did not like studio recording because it demands high tension. But his music and recordings overcame the bad condition and survived against flooding of the new recordings from now on.
His recording repertoire is only confined to from German baroque to romantic(in my incomplete discography, only 11 composers including Furtwängler), but his concert repertoire was not so narrow - Debussy, Medtner, Hindemith, Reger, Scriabin, Stravinsky and Schönberg(6 Klavierstücke), and Chopin, etc. Medtner himself said that one of the best performances he had heard of his Piano Sonata in e minor was that by Fischer in Paris in 1920s. As long as we hear him by records, his technique is less than that of Backhaus, Horowitz, etc. But his characteristic tone is so profound and even mysterious that almost all of modern pianists cannot match him in the individuality. His sonority is very beautiful and soft at pp, and tough but never noisy or rough at ff . His ff sonority was often depicted as 'weighty thing on velvet'. Pianist Denis Mattews, who could join Fischer in a recording as a third solist of Concerto for three cembalos(EMI CDH 7 64928 2), wrote impressive material ; "benevolently leonine... had the softness and strength of a lion's velvet paws". He also liked to conduct, the recordings with his chamber orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra shows his ambidexterity well. Elly Ney recalled a concert where she played solo of Brahms' Second Concerto and Fischer conducted. In his musical activity, piano solo was only one aspect and he was also good at chamber music(famous trio with Kulenkampf/Schneiderhan and Mainardi), and accompanist of lied.
Most
of his recordings are at very high level. There are many items in
Références series of EMI, in which Bach recordings are very
good. The complete set of 'Das Wohltemperiete Klavier'(EMI,
1933~36) is really historical, in the both chronical aspect(the
first complete recording) and playing quality - especially on
musical fluences and supreme sonority with individuality. Other
Bach recordings are Brandenburg Concertos(No.2 & 5), Cembalo
concertos(No.1,2,4,5 & for 3 cembalos), and minor pieces,
which contains Chromatic fantasy and fugue, Fantasies, Chorale
Preludes, Toccata, etc(all EMI). This recording shows
wonderful(!!) tone color, romantic interpretation, and decisive
and persuasive concept of the pieces.
Mozart recordings are less famous - on Mozart
bicentennial year(1991), EMI released all of the Mozart
recordings of Fischer's as 3CD set(now deleted from catalog),
which comprised of 5 concertos, 2 sonatas(K.330 & 331),
fantasie, etc. Concerto No.24(K.491) conducted by
Lawrence Collingwood(later EMI producer of the monaural era,
especially for Furtwängler) has already acquired high
reputation.
The available recordings of Beethoven's works are
Concerto No.3~5 and Sonata No.7,8,23 & 31(EMI), in which
'Emperor' Concerto with Furtwängler has very high reputation from now on. Music &
Art released live of Sonata No.7,8,14,15,21,30, & 32.
Recordings of Schubert's are Wanderer Fantasy, Musical moments,
Impromptus D.899 & 935, and Lied album of Schwarzopf by
accompanist. I cannot overpraise the beautiful interpretation of
Impromptus and lied album. Brahms' Concerto No.2 with Furtwängler(live in 1942) is more or less
deficient in sound quality, but interesting
in the point of hard-boiling atmosphere. Other solo recordings
are Schumann's Fantasy, Brahms's Sonata No.3(EMI), Furtwängler's Concerto No.2(2nd movement),
etc.
The duo with Gioconda de Vito(Brahms'
violin sonata No.1 & 3; EMI) and the trio with Schneiderhan and Mainardi are major parts in his chamber music recordings, in
which Georg Kulenkampf originally played violin but Schneiderhan
succeeded his post after his death. The team was one of the best
piano trios in 20th century, whose recordings remained only by
live and broadcasting tape. Music & Art released Beethoven's Ghost
& Archduke, Mozart's K.548, Schumann's No.1, and
Brahms' No.1 & 2. Badura-Skoda's recalling of a concert in
Salzburg(in 1950) alludes Fischer's instinct to chamber music.
The master(Fischer) had suddenly fallen ill, and it was he himself who suggested that I substitute for him. On the basis of the impressions I had up to that time I threw myself with full force into the ff passages of the Brahms Trio on the program - after all that is how my master Edwin had done it. But after a few measures Enrico Mainardi interrupted me: "Young man, this is no piano concerto! If you play so loud, the strings won't be audible at all! A ff in a chamber music work is not the absolute but the relative volume of sound. What objectively corresponds to a mf may give the impression of the greatest power here, even if the piano is corresponding less loud and above all when an inner power of the soul comes to the fore."(from Music & Arts CD-739)
1) Miscellaneous photo (photo ; EMI)
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2) Trio with Wolfgang Schneiderhan and Enrico Mainardi
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| (1) Photo from Music & Arts CD-739 | (2) In trio repertoire playing |
Photos from ;
(c) 1996~ , Youngrok LEE ; Link free, but please get my approval before you reuse, copy, or quote this materials.
Created ; 21st
Jul. 2000
Last Update ; 24th Sep. 2010