Geza Anda
Since his death in 1976 at the age of 55, Géza Anda's considerable reputation has faded somewhat from view. But in his heyday he was widely regarded as a transcendent pianist, possessed of a natural technique that gave his performances an intimate quality, even when he was scaling the Himalayan heights of his signature Brahms B flat major concerto. It was with that work that he made his debut in 1939 in Budapest under Willem Mengelberg.
Anda was born in 1921 in Budapest; after studying with Imre Stefaniai and Imre Keeri-Szanto, he became a piano pupil of Ernst von Dohnányi at the Royal Music Academy. A stipend allowed him to travel to Berlin, where he performed Franck's Symphonic Variations under Furtwängler. Anda remained in Berlin during the first years of World War II, but in 1942 he fled to Switzerland, where he encountered the great pianist and teacher Edwin Fischer. Fischer was a proponent of performing the Mozart piano concertos while conducting from the keyboard, and Anda would later adopt this practice, adding bench-led performances of all the concertos (even the early ones) to his repertoire. Anda was among the first to explore the whole range of Mozart's concertos at a time when only the greatest hits were heard in concert halls; his outstanding 1960s recordings of the complete cycle with the Camerata Academica of the Salzburg Mozarteum remain a milestone in the history of recorded music.
Anda's style was noteworthy for its transparency of texture and its singing qualities, which led Furtwängler to dub him a "troubadour" of the piano. His flawless technique allowed him to invest his performances with considerable individuality: his readings of Schumann, for instance, were breathtakingly multidimensional, full of asides and highly appropriate introspective commentary conveyed from within Schumann's notes. He was especially influenced by his artistic partnership with the great Romanian pianist Clara Haskil, with whom he played two-piano repertoire from 1953 to 1958. Her moral commitment to conveying music's essence deepened Anda's own musical insight; his subsequent performances reflected a new harnessing of Anda's strong musical personality to the service of the music's meaning.
Although his repertoire was wide and ranged across core Classical-Romantic territory, it is likely that Anda will be most remembered for his interpretations of the music of his countryman Béla Bartók, whose three piano concertos he recorded in 1959 and 1960. These performances are masterpieces of technical ease and artistic mastery, and remain available in commercial release. A few months before the end of his too-brief life, Anda went into the studio and left a final testament of waltzes by Chopin, interpreted in an astonishing otherworldly manner. Anda allows the rhythmic impulse of Chopin's triple-time to hover almost motionlessly, as if contemplated from a distant and ethereal height.
© TiVo
Artistes similaires
-
Schumann: Études symphoniques - Brahms: Variations sur un thème de Paganini (Mono Version)
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1954
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique - Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 - R. Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Live)
Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Geza Anda, Lorin Maazel
Classique - Paru chez Orfeo le 10 août 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Franck: Psyche - Variations Symphoniques - Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole - Introduction et Allegro - Debussy: Danse sacree et profane
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Phia Berghout, Geza Anda
Classique - Paru chez Intermusic S.A. le 13 août 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Klemperer Live: Cologne, Vol. 3 — Concert 5 April 1954 (Historical Recordings)
Geza Anda, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Otto Klemperer
Classique - Paru chez Archiphon le 4 août 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Delibes, Dohnányi: Valse extraite de Coppélia - Liszt: Étude de concert No. 3 (Mono Version)
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1955
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Concerto pour piano No. 2, Préludes, Op. 32 No. 5 & Op. 23 No. 5 (Mono Version)
Geza Anda, Philharmonia Orchestra, Alceo Galliera
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1954
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Edition Geza Anda, Vol. 4 (1952, 1953, 1957) (Bela Bartok)
Classique - Paru chez Audite le 2 avr. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Plays Mozart and Ravel (1952, 1963)
Geza Anda, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Hans Rosbaud, Ernest Bour
Classique - Paru chez SWR Classic le 7 août 2012
5 de Diapason16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grandi maestri dell'interpretazione: Clara Haskil, Vol. 3
Clara Haskil, Geza Anda, French Radio Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Paul Hindemith, Bernhard Paumgartner
Classique - Paru chez Stradivarius le 1 janv. 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B Flat Major, Op. 83
Geza Anda, Ferenc Fricsay, Berliner Philharmoniker
Classique - Paru chez Classically le 28 juil. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 17 & 21
The Camerata Academica of the Salzburg Mozarteum, Geza Anda
Musique concertante - Paru chez Radio Tower Records le 1 oct. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cello Masterpieces: Pierre Fournier
Pierre Fournier, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Friedrich Gulda, Geza Anda, Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Ferenc Fricsay
Classique - Paru chez Jube Classic le 4 nov. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Concerto pour piano No. 1 & Sonate pour piano No. 14 (Mono Version)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Alceo Galliera, Geza Anda
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns: Le carnaval des animaux - Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (Mono Version)
Igor Markevitch, Philharmonia Orchestra, Geza Anda
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1955
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: 24 Préludes, Op. 28 & Polonaise No. 6, Op. 53 (Remastered, Stereo Version)
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
R. Schumann: Piano Works
Classique - Paru chez Archipel le 29 nov. 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15
Classique - Paru chez Past Classics le 25 mars 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concerto piano n° 2 - Ballades
Classique - Paru chez Universal Music Division Decca Records France le 1 janv. 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Alto-Rhapsody (Recordings of 1957 & 1958)
Geza Anda, Ferenc Fricsay, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Pop - Paru chez GazzaLadra le 31 déc. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Concerti pour piano Nos. 2 & 3 (Stereo Version)
Geza Anda, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchesters Berlin, Ferenc Fricsay
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo