Brahms: Piano Sonata No.3 / Bartók: 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs / Liszt: 2 Etudes / Dohnányi: Rhapsod

The free-spirited Hungarian Annie Fischer (1914-1995) was one of the 20th century's greatest pianists. She was too mercurial an artist to enjoy making records, and after her husband died in 1968, she grew increasingly reclusive, avoiding studio microphones altogether. That makes this BBC Legends transfer of her 1961 Edinburgh recital particularly precious--not least because it contains music by Brahms and her countrymen, Bartók, Liszt, and Dohnányi, that she never recorded commercially. She lets the diffuse, sprawling score of Brahms's mighty F Minor Sonata unfold simply and majestically: her chords roll with an oceanic roar. And while an occasional note goes awry--Fischer was always more interested in getting the music, rather than merely the notes, right--not a single inflection goes wrong. Pianists who play this piece with a comparably consummate sense of pace, atmosphere, and emotional power can be counted on the fingers of one hand. That might also be said about the disc's other performances. Her earthy and passionate reading of Bartók's 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs is a far cry from the hard-edged approach usually encountered. Two Liszt Etudes are dispatched with panache and uncommon musicality. Her playing in Dohnányi's Rhapsody in C Major is as pleasing to the ear as a delicious Viennese pastry would be to the palate. --Stephen Wigler