‘Géza Anda Complete Deutsche Grammophon Recordings’ Celebrates Great Pianist’s Centenary

Géza Anda Complete Deutsche Grammophon Recordings, a limited edition 17-CD box set, celebrates the 100th birthday (19 November 2021) of one of the greatest pianists of our time. All the individual recordings featured in this special collection have also been digitally released. For the majority of his sadly short-lived career Géza Anda, described by BBC Music Magazine as a “pianistic phenomenon” was a Deutsche Grammophon artist and left an important legacy on the label.

Includes Géza Anda’s pioneering Mozart piano concerto cycle

Géza Anda Complete Deutsche Grammophon Recordings includes his pioneering Mozart piano concerto cycle with the Camerata Academica of the Mozarteum Salzburg, which was the first to be conducted by the soloist from the piano and is still one of the best-selling cycles, memorable recordings of Bartók, Brahms and Schumann, and Beethoven’s ‘Triple’ Concerto with Wolfgang Schneiderhan and Pierre Fournier. The limited-edition 17-CD box set features recordings with conductors Ferenc Fricsay, Herbert von Karajan, Rafael Kubelík, and Eduard van Beinum and rare shellac recordings, released for the first time on CD, of music by Bach/Busoni, Scarlatti and Brahms.

There have been many attempts to define the particular qualities that made Géza Anda such a special pianist. His style was noteworthy for its texture and singing qualities which led Wilhelm Furtwängler, under whose direction the then twenty-one year old pianist made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in January 1943 performing César Franck’s Variations Symphoniques, to describe him as the “troubadour of the keyboard”.

Géza Anda held Herbert von Karajan, Furtwängler’s Berlin successor, in the highest regard who, for him, embodied the ideal synthesis of technical perfection and intensity of expression. Anda and Karajan worked together over many years and in 1967 their partnership produced one of the finest of all recordings of Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto as well as a number of impressive live recordings of Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto.

Géza Anda attributed the enormous success of his performances of Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto under Ferenc Fricsay to the fact they had revealed its innermost core and demonstrated that a work “that had initially struck its audiences as incomprehensible noise” was “in truth a romantic piece of music”.

Géza Anda Complete Deutsche Grammophon Recordings includes award-winning recordings of solo works and concertos that set new standards and, in many respects, continue to enjoy classic status, most notably his Greig and Schumann concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic under Rafael Kubelik. This 17-CD box set, accompanied by digital releases of the individual recordings, also includes the first release on CD of Géza Anda’s rare shellac recordings of Bach/Busoni, Scarlatti and Brahms.

The Recordings

Géza Anda, piano

CD1 Bartók Concertos for Piano and Orchestra Nos. 1–3
Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Ferenc Fricsay

CD2 Brahms Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2
Eberhard Finke cello; Berliner Philharmoniker, Ferenc Fricsay
Bartók Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra
Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Ferenc Fricsay

CD3 Brahms Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2
Eberhard Finke, cello, Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan
Grieg Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
Berliner Philharmoniker, Rafael Kubelík

CD4 Schumann Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
Berliner Philharmoniker, Rafael Kubelík
Beethoven Concerto for Piano, Violin, Cello and Orchestra in C major ‘Triple Concerto’ op. 56
Wolfgang Schneiderhan, violin, Pierre Fournier, cello, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Ferenc Fricsay

CD5 Bartók Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert von Karajan
Mozart Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 21 in C major K 467
Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan
Franck Variations Symphoniques pour piano et orchestre
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Eduard van Beinum

CD6-13 Mozart Piano Concertos
Géza Anda piano & conductor, Camerata Academica of the Mozarteum Salzburg

CD14 Beethoven 33 Variations in C major for Piano on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli op. 120
Schubert Piano Sonata in B flat major D 960 (op. posth.)

CD15 Chopin 24 Preludes op. 28 ∙ Polonaise in A flat major ‘Heroic’ op. 53
Schumann Davidsbündlertänze op. 6

CD16 Schumann Kreisleriana op. 16, Fantasia in C major op. 17, Symphonic Etudes in C sharp minor op. 13

The Shellac recordings
CD17 J.S. Bach Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ BWV 639 (transc. Busoni) *
Scarlatti Sonata in A major K 182 (L 139) *
Liszt Mephisto Waltz No. 1, La Campanella (arr. Busoni)
Chopin Etude in E minor op. 25 no. 5, Mazurka in A minor op. 67 no. 4, Mazurka in A minor op. 68 no. 2
Schumann Symphonic Etudes in C sharp minor op. 13
Brahms 3 Intermezzi op. 117 *, Intermezzo in E minor op. 119 no. 2 *
*new to CD

Géza Anda Complete Deutsche Grammophon Recordings can be bought here.

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