A great pianist plays Johannes B.

Annie Fischer, Lili Kraus, Ilona Kabos, Edith FarnadiLiszt, Bartok, Rachmaninov, Bach to Bartok Iren MarikFrom recordings (1956 - 1983), Géza Anda: in the middle of the twentieth century, Hungary aligns an exceptional number of outstanding pianists, known and less known. It must be said that they had good teachers at the Conservatory of Budapest 'as Ernö Dohnanyi.

We come back on the "case" Géza Anda with this Brahms disc tweaked by an exciting performer, here thirty, the sound engineer Robert Beckett was able to capture remarkably, to the point that Sviatoslav Richter recorded by Decca for sonatas 1 and 2 in 1987 (another must) Brahms: Piano Sonatas Nos 1 & 2 finally less fortunate.

Recorded in April 1953 the Paganini Variations included with Schumann's Symphonic Etudes of Columbia on the first disk Géza Anda, produced by Walter Legge (I raised the career of pianist disk to mark the reissue of TelefunkenThe Telefunken discs Recordings-Berlin 1950-1951). The combination of Legge and Géza Anda has something logical: they share the project to record discs but not future "classics of the gramophone." Of course, no one has heard less mind-blowing in fast Variations, as with Egon PetriVariations Piano, and the Arrau stereo disk remains a monument, though here too it is the fireworks. But do we ever heard the slow variations highlighted with such a delicate touch, a nightlife also involved. The first book tends to overshadow the second, the second gold here is second to nothing in the first. We bow down.

Recorded in December 1957 Sonata op. 5 compares Anda with a few sizes: Harold Bauer (captured in 1939) Complete Recordings, while fluidity, SolomonCarnaval; Piano Sonata No.3, Annie Fischer in concert (BBC Legends) Annie Fischer, piano, Claudio Arrau in his beautiful stereo PhilipsBrahms (BBC Legends al.) - Piano Works (Arrau Heritage). To my surprise and after comparison, Anda is the most powerful, most pest, from the Allegro Maestoso, without ever this sounds excessive, ugly or brutal: nothing is soaped all captive, lyrical passages like claw blows more violent times. In the second movement, one has the choice between Bauer, alert and bright, the two great contemplative landscapes and Solomon describe Arrau, colorists extraordinary, interiority Annie Fischer, perhaps the most shocking of all, and elegance Supreme Game Anda, atmosphere clear night and his reminiscences of the world of Lied. The following movements, rides and tantrums (the motif of Beethoven destiny in Rückblick), chiseled features, to rediscover the extraordinary control of the sound was that of Anda. Direct concatenation of Rückblick is noted and where Finale will prevail.

The Intermezzi op. 117 also fascinated by the fullness of the sound.

A Sleeping Beauty of the catalog, we will not regret to wake.