November 19, 2021 marks the 100e anniversary of the birth of Hungarian pianist Géza Anda. His early death, in 1976, at the age of 55, explains a notoriety confined to amateurs. Géza Anda has remained linked to an integral of Mozart’s concertos engraved as conductor and pianist. Do we understand the relief, the transparency, the simplicity of tone that it brought 60 years ago? But Anda is associated with other references: Bartók’s concertos and the Triple by Beethoven with Ferenc Fricsay. There are relatively few rarities here, although his Chopin preludes, his D. 960, his Diabelli variations and his Schumanns have left center stage. The style is a kind of charcoal piano: a clarity and frankness to which we are no longer accustomed, with a fine and attentive sound, at the antipodes of that, gorged, of a Claudio Arrau. For collectors: a 78 rpm CD (with the Symphonic studies by Schumann, theOpus 117 de Brahms and a formidable Mephisto Waltz) rubs shoulders with rare Variationsby Franck with van Beinum.
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