Annie Fischer enjoys a singular reputation within the great tradition of Hungarian pianists due to her deeply moving and romantically intimate performances. She became famous and admired on account of her uncompromising, spiritually absorbing interpretations. But she left behind only a few studio recordings; like many other musicians, she was critically opposed to working in the studio. Her recordings of the Mozart concertos for EMI, however, became benchmark interpretations. Most of Annie Fischer’s commercial recordings appeared in the 1950s and 1960s, up until her husband’s death in 1968. She retired from the podium in grief for some time afterwards.

Fortunately, some of this great artist’s live recordings have been preserved. In February 1958, Annie Fischer was the guest soloist with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, under its long-time chief conductor Hans Müller-Kray, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in E flat major, K482. One year later, in February 1959, she performed Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Symphony Orchestra of the Southwestern Broadcasting Corporation in Baden-Baden (Südwestfunk, SWF), conducted by the legendary Hans Rosbaud – a particularly attractive recording that demonstrates how different temperaments can come together to form a captivating overall picture.