Since my introduction to historical recordings in the mid-1980s, Edwin Fischer has been one of my favourite musicians. The Swiss pianist had famously made the first complete recording of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier in the 1930s and was known for his interpretations of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms.
Early in my research into the art and recordings of Dinu Lipatti (who had coached briefly with Fischer when the young Romanian arrived in Switzerland in 1943), I was introduced by another researcher (via correspondence) to London-based Roger Smithson, who was researching Fischer recordings. This was back in the day when one wrote actual letters overseas – there was no internet – and we had a very engaging correspondence, with Roger being a great help in introducing me to people and places I might contact in my attempt to locate unpublished Lipatti recordings. We would meet each time I visited London in the early 90s while on Lipatti research visits, and we maintained contact over the years.
Roger has continually been updating his discography of Fischer and recently offered to share his findings publicly. We met again in London in September 2018, along with Fischer’s pupil Gerald Kingsley, who has provided terrific insight to help with Roger’s research, and we discussed having the finished document detailing all of Fischer’s uploaded online – and it is now housed in this post (the link is at the bottom of the page).
Although Fischer made his debut during World War I, his first recording session was as late as May 1928 – when the pianist was 41 – at the Electrola studios in Berlin. However, this session yielded no published discs: that would have to wait until October 1931, a full three years later, at which he recorded this Händel Chaconne in G Major HWV 435. It was the first work put on disc at both of these sessions, and the issued 1931 recording has not been regularly rereleased. Here is, in a magnificent transfer directly from an original Victor pressing (effected by and kindly provided by Tom Jardine), Edwin Fischer’s first commercial recording:
Another wonderful and rarely released Händel recording is the Suite No.3 in D Minor, which captures Fischer’s vitality and robust pianism to perfection:
Fischer is particularly famous for having made the first complete account on records of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (read here for more about the first aborted attempt with other pianists). Artur Schnabel was recording the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas funded by subscriptions to The Beethoven Society (records were produced once sufficient funds for each forthcoming volume had been collected), and a similar process was undertaken for Fischer’s traversal of the WTC. Fischer recorded the cycle at 17 sessions at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios (in addition to one session in Berlin that yielded no usable discs) between 1933 and 1936. The final result was five volumes of records:
Vol. 1 (7 records) Book 1: Preludes and Fugues Nos. 1 to 12
Vol. 2 (7 records) Book 1: Preludes and Fugues Nos.13 to 24
Vol. 3 (7 records) Book 2: Preludes and Fugues Nos. 1 to 10
Vol. 4 (7 records) Book 2: Preludes and Fugues Nos. 11 to 19
Vol. 5 (6 records) Book 2: Preludes and Fugues Nos. 20 to 24
(the final set includes the English Suite No.2 in A Minor played by Wanda Landowska on the harpsichord)
Here is the first of that massive undertaking of ‘The 48’ – although Fischer recorded this first Prelude & Fugue on April 25, 1933 when he began the cycle, all takes of the work made on that day were rejected in favour of this later attempt on September 12, 1933 (again, our thanks to Tom Jardine for his transfer):
While Fischer famously recorded three Bach Concerti from the keyboard in the 1930s (and, as the discography reveals, others that were not released), and his Mozart Concerto recordings are justly celebrated, his 1942 reading of the Haydn Concerto in D Major has received much less airplay: it was only issued twice (never with the parent record company) on LP and has had scant distribution on CD. This magnificent performance finds Fischer playing with great aplomb and vitality:
Roger Smithson’s discography covers not only studio recordings, both released and unreleased (there are some details about unissued studio recordings that are tantalizing indeed), but also all known surviving broadcast recordings. We are fortunate that Fischer lived into the tape era of the 1950s, which led to the existence of concert recordings captured in fine sound. Despite Fischer being of a more advanced age at this time, we can hear him in wonderful form in repertoire he did not otherwise commit to disc. One such glorious performance is his August 9, 1952 Salzburg broadcast of Beethoven’s ‘Archduke’ Trio Op.97, featuring marvellous collaborative playing amongst the three stellar musicians – Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Enrico Mainardi, and Edwin Fischer – making this a worthy contender for a reference recording of the work:
Another fine later performance of a work not in his commercial discography took place a month later: Fischer’s September 23, 1952 Munich account of Beethoven’s Fantasia Op.77, which reveals in wonderful sound his glowing sonority, fluid phrasing, and attentive voicing:
I hope that the availability of Fischer’s discography will invite piano fans to investigate more of this great pianist’s artistry through the many hours of recordings that he left us. Many thanks to Roger Smithson for making his work available to us!
A note from Roger regarding an update to the discography:
I hadn’t planned to make frequent changes to this discography, but a glitch (my fault) caused the layout of the discography to go haywire, so I had it taken down for repairs. In this new version I have also made some corrections and improvements suggested in early feedback from readers – thank you! The cut-off date for information is now 28 February 2019 and copyright date 2019.
Click the bold text to download a PDF file of the Edwin Fischer Discography by Roger Smithson