Géza Anda: Mozart Piano Concertos 21 to 23

Geza Anda & Carla Fracci - W.A. Mozart K.467 Piano Concerto No.21, 2nd mov. Andante

W.A. Mozart K.467 Piano Concerto No.21, 2nd mov. Andante
Geza Anda: Piano
Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg
Carla Fracci: Ballet
Gheorghe Lancu: Ballet
Ballet scene: La Sylphide (Choreography: Auguste Bournonville)



Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major, K. 482 (1785)

00:00 - Allegro (Cadenza: Anda)
12:59 - Andante
22:39 - Allegro (Cadenza: Anda)

Performed by Géza Anda (Pianist & Conductor) and the Camerata Academica des Salzburgers Mozarteums (1962).



Piano concerto nº23 in A major K.488 Movement 1



Piano concerto nº23 in A major K.488 Movement 2



Piano concerto nº23 in A major K.488 Movement 3

Geza Anda (1921-1976)
The Hungarian pianist, Géza Anda, had studied with Imre Stefaniai and Imre Keeri-Szanto, before becoming 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 Wilhelm Furtwängler.
Géza Anda made his debut in 1939 in Budapest under Willem Mengelberg playing Brahms B flat major concerto, which would become his signature. He 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. He 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 1960's recordings of the complete cycle with the Camerata Academica of the Salzburg Mozarteum remain a milestone in the history of recorded music.
Géza Anda's style was noteworthy for its transparency of texture and its singing qualities, which led Wilhelm 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 his 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 Géza 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. He allows the rhythmic impulse of Chopin's triple-time to hover almost motionlessly, as if contemplated from a distant and ethereal height.
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.

Carla Fracci (1936 - )
Carla Fracci was born in Milan in 1936. She studied at the La Scala Ballet School from 1946 with Vera Volkova and others, graduating into the company in 1954. Promoted soloist in 1956 and principal in 1958. At La Scala she created Juliet in Cranko's Romeo and Juliet (1958) and Elvira in Massine's Don Giovanni (1959). She appeared with many companies like London Festival Ballet in 1959 and 1962, Royal Ballet in 1963, Stuttgart Ballet in 1965 and Royal Swedish Ballet in 1969. From 1967 she was principal guest artist of the American Ballet Theatre.
She is renowned for her interpretation of the romantic roles. Giselle was her greatest success, she danced it with many great partners like with Rudolf Nureyev, Vladimir Vasiliev, Henning Kronstam, Mikhail Baryshnikov and above all Erik Bruhn. Her unforgettable Giselle with Bruhn was filmed in 1969. Other great roles were Sylphide, Swanilda and Juliet.
She was director of ballet in Naples 1990-91 and in Verona 1995-97. She is now director of Balletto dell'Opera di Roma.

Géza Anda (Conductor, Performer), Salzburg Mozarteum Camerata Academica (Orchestra)


Géza Anda: Mozart Piano Concertos 5 to 11
Géza Anda: Mozart Piano Concertos 12 to 20
Géza Anda: Mozart Piano Concertos 21 to 23