Edwin Fischer (1886-1960)


I first learned who Edwin Fischer was as a student of Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna. I recall lessons during which Edwin Fischer was quoted again and again and how he became more and more "incarnate" over time due to the affection and enthusiasm of my teacher. Edwin Fischer's "power" was ever-present and I became curious and began reading his booklets—timelessly beautiful words, as though from the mouth of a poet. I had never before read anything so beautiful, simple and deeply felt about music as I did from Edwin Fischer. Schumann comes to mind: "The Poet Speaks." You feel pulled towards what you feel within yourself: that music is the purest expression of something greater than us fallible humans. I found everything in those little books: the purity of feeling, not the obsessive artificial flavoring by artists who believe themselves to be better than the composer... the simplicity and genuineness of feeling which drew me towards Master Edwin, as he was lovingly called... his high artistic ideals, which I think about every time I read his writings and especially whenever I listen to his recordings....

His recording of Beethoven's Sonata, Op. 109 practically enlightened me in its poetry and gracefulness, which Edwin Fischer gave us not only through his interpretation, but also through his commentary that makes him a genuine, unexcelled poet for me: "The gracefulness and luminosity of this work has a maturity, as though encountering a youthful love again after twenty years and finding again the same noble streaks, yet sublimated and more transparent." What an outstanding creative gift speaks from these words! Edwin Fischer, a true agent of great thoughts and feelings.

The purpose of the Edwin Fischer Sommerakademie in Potsdam, which I founded in 2009, is to ensure than this great musician and person is never forgotten and to make the young artists that attend a masterclass here every year curious about Edwin Fischer—for only a creative person with deep feeling and imagination can divine what an endless task lies before us whenever we place the score on the music rest and begin....

Alexander Untschi

Edwin Fischer Summer Academy Potsdam