Meet Ashtray Annie, smoking hot pianist
Daily Comfort ZoneAnnie Fischer was the woman pianist that Martha liked best.
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Pianist Piers Lane relates the story of going to dinner in Budapest with Annie Fischer: “We went to a restaurant where all the waiters lined up and bowed to her. And, you know, that was heavy stuff for an eighteen-year-old from Brisbane.”
Now they would bow for Piers.
Talk about a no nonsense pianist from old school! Heard her once in Boston in early ’80s. Walked on stage with her simple black frock n shoes, bowed quickly, n sat down to pay Liszt B-minor sonata brilliantly. No distractions with clothing, mannerisms, flailing about, “personal branding” stuff. Just pure music making n magic. A totally bygone era which we shall not see again.
Just because mannerisms and branding attract so much media and blog coverage, doesn’t mean that great musicians free of all that nonsense don’t exist. We just don’t hear about them as much.
There are some, rare, but there still are some rare musicians in Annie Fischer’s style!
She would have a bigger career if she’d played in bicycle shorts, a spangly tube top, and 5-inch heels.
I have heard Annie Fischer live twice. Her Beethoven, her Schubert and her Schumann were really phenomenal. The first time was a few weeks after an incredible recital where Gilels played the Liszt sonata. Fifty years after this, I still don’t know which recital was the best.