a) The first recordings for DG in 1943 (including César Franck Symphonic Variations with Eduard van Beinum).
b) The records for Telefunken made in Berlin in 1950-1951 and grouped on CD for the first time with this album.
c) The Columbia period (1953-1958) reprinted in Testament (Walter Legge being producer) Piano Sonatas N 3 Intermezzi Op117 Variations
d) DG period marked in the 1960s by the integrals of piano concertos MozartMozart: Piano Concertos No. 6, 17 and 21, Mozart: Piano Concertos (Box 8 CD) BartókBartok: Piano Concertos No. 1, 2 and 3.
What you obviously add live recordings (including a number in Audits and Orfeo) and also a final disc recorded in December 1975 Eurodisc devoted to Chopin waltz.
This album no less than 87 minutes includes:
Carnival and Schumann's Symphonic Etudes
The second Partita by Bach
The sonata by Haydn Hob. XVI. 23
The sonata K 576 by Mozart
What resemble those records where Audits removed the maximum noise, where the piano is a little short by its location (Mozart), but still alive anyway? Obviously, Anda has (already) come into its own in 1950, that of a refined classicism which does not exclude the inner fire. An anti-Barnum piano, anti-sentimentality, without fat, without eccentricity, without any solicitation. Géza Anda could be defined as a control freak (the photographs from this point of view, speak for themselves: the horror neglected), but control is a means to realize the Idea.
Schumann was one of his favorite composers, as well as the Carnival Studies were presented by him on the loom by suiteSchumann: Carnival; Symphonic Etudes; Kreisleriana. Summit this record in my opinion, the Symphonic Etudes are compared to the wonderful Edinburgh concert, 1955 (BBC Legends) Geza Anda, piano - Beethoven, Schumann, Bartok, Brahms often more lyrical, more immediately seductive and captivating. At first listen they can also seem very harsh to admirers of the great versions such Cortot and Richter. But listen again carefully the night of the posthumous Variation V, the shimmer of the Study VIII, the implacable crescendo-decrescendo management of the XI study espresssione con: it's simply confusing control. We hear a young pianist fully invested in his art, which has vowed not to make any concessions but to subjugate the audience.
Carnival can be confusing at the beginning and look into a collection of studies, modest to a fault (Pierrot, track 2, took many insurance). But Anda household beautiful moments like this Chiarina or March of Davidsbündler against the Philistines that translates so eloquently under his fingers the triumph of progressive on old beards.
Haydn is approached with humor and Bach as in the middle movement of Mozart, sobriety bear fruit, even if it will not be to the liking of everyone.
Not a first choice to discover the Anda forward DG, certainly - the Columbia / Testament disks are preferred, and it is always recommended its quite exceptional Sonata in B minor by Liszt and Bartók combined with the Waltz for DelibesSonate piano, but this is one piece of the puzzle that we needed to embrace glance all the life of a performer whose place in the pantheon of the piano in the 20th century is not what it should be.
