Edwin Fischer: Concerts with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra
rec. live, April 1945 (Concerto 1 for three claviers, Concerto for flute, violin and clavier, Concerto 2) and 25 October 1948 remainder
Maestro Editions ME282 [75 + 62]

I have never come across Music & Arts CD1080, which contained the same programme as this one, but Maestro Editions claims to employ superior transfers, courtesy of Legendary Archives, in their digipak 2-CD release.

The discs bring together Swiss-born pianist Edwin Fischer’s extant Bach recordings with the Lausanne Chamber orchestra in 1945 and 1948, adding Wassenaer’s Concertino in F minor in the Sam Franko arrangement. The release is all the more valuable, as, of course, was Music & Arts’, because Fischer left behind no other surviving recordings of the Concerto for Flute, Violin and Clavier in A minor, BWV1044 or the Concerto No.1 for three Claviers in D minor, 1063.

He did record the companion Concerto No.2 for three claviers, BWV 1053, a famous May 1950 inscription with Ronald Smith and Denis Matthews, so the April 1945 broadcast of the First concerto makes for a welcome survivor. Paul Baumgartner and Adrian Aeschbacher take the other two roles with commitment, sensitively shaping the slow movement, and driving with energy in the finale. The strings are rather shrill though that could well be a broadcast phenomenon. In the Concerto for Flute, Violin and Clavier, Fischer is joined by Edmond Defrancesco (flute), the orchestra’s principal, and Giovanni Bargarotti (violin), a Szigeti and Flesch pupil. Again, it’s a typically communicative account, the refinement of the flute’s tone in the central movement, and the violin’s exchanges with Fischer’s piano, being highlights, though there is a small amount of damage from around 6:10 to 6:20 in this movement. The finale is robust and strongly accented.

Concerto No.2, BWV1053 is more expansive than Fischer’s commercial recording, made in 1950 where the continuo piano was played by Geraint Jones. Here in Lausanne, Wilfried de Boe does the honours.  Fischer manages to generate a real sense of vitality and liveliness and his playing is full of verve. He splits notes here and there and the playing isn’t as tidy as it was in the studio but one catches here more than a whiff of Fischer’s invigoration. The final item on the first disc is Fischer’s own arrangement of the Ricercar a 6 from the Musical Offering, and Fischer drives the six-part fugue with real power, extracting the maximum from the small complement of double basses – the orchestra is about 40-strong – and even groaning along; well, someone is groaning at 4:19 and it must be Fischer.

He had recorded the Concerto No.4 in A major, BWV1055 back in Berlin in 1936 with his eponymous chamber orchestra but one can feel the dynamic shaping registering the more personally here – there’s a great sense of intimacy in the Larghetto where he can be heard groaning again. Though there are the occasional splashes in the finale Fischer phrases beautifully. Wassenaar’s Concertino is richly vibrated, full of generous phrasing – just the way I like it – and Fischer urges on his orchestra in the Allegro, whilst encouraging deftness in the Larghetto. There are only two surviving movements from BWV1056, but they are almost identical in tempo to his studio recording in 1938. Finally, we hear the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto once again with Defrancesco but this time with violinist Andrée Wachsmuth-Loew, a slim-toned stylist who fuses well with the flautist. Fischer is caught on the wing playing with dynamism and brio and he dispatches the first movement cadenza with real élan.

There is a track-listing error which I’m sure will be corrected. Track 10 on CD 2 is ten seconds of applause after the Concerto No.5 and therefore the Brandenburg Concerto begins with track 11 (not 10).

Roger Smithson has compiled the fine notes which helpfully include photographs and a listing of Fischer’s concerts with the Lausanne Chamber orchestra.

Jonathan Woolf

Contents
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Concerto No.1 for three Claviers in D minor, BWV1063
Concerto for Flute, Violin and Clavier in A minor, BWV1044
Clavier Concerto No.2 in E major, BWV1053
Musical Offering, BWV1079 – Ricercar a 6 arr. Fischer
Clavier Concerto No.4 in A major, BWV1055
Clavier Concerto No.5 in F minor, BWV1056 – Movements 2 and 3
Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D major, BWV1050
Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer (attrib. Pergolesi) (1692-1766)
Concertino in F minor arr. Sam Franko
Edwin Fischer (piano, director)
Paul Baumgartner and Adrian Aeschbacher (pianos)
Edmond Defrancesco (flute) and Giovanni Bargarotti (violin) – Concerto for Flute, Violin and Clavier
Edmond Defrancesco (flute) and Andrée Wachsmuth-Loew (violin) – Brandenburg Concerto
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra