Fischer
Alfred Brendel has spoken of everything he owes the great Edwin Fischer, once remarking that he had never heard anyone make the piano sing like Fischer. One can hear what he means in this recording of Beethoven’s fourth concerto. The first movement cadenza is moving. Is it Fischer’s own? The greatest marvel, though, is the beginning of the second movement, which, as Ingmar Bergman observed in a famous radio speech, is a reluctant dialogue between the orchestra and the piano. ‘Beethoven lets the orchestra be in a bad mood – just listen and hear how angry it is! Then the piano comes in and says: “I will comfort you”‘, only to be told, ‘No one can comfort me!’ The piano, however, doesn’t give up: ‘What tenderness!’ ‘Eventually the orchestra starts listening, and the movement ends in peaceful understanding.’ Fischer draws us into this parable of gracious perseverance.
