Edwin Fischer – pianist (b. 6 October 1886 – d. 24 January 1960)
was a Swiss classical pianist and conductor. He is regarded as one of the great interpreters of J.S. Bach and Mozart in the twentieth century.
Fischer was born in Basel and studied music first there with Hans Huber, and later in Berlin at the Stern Conservatory under Martin Krause. He first came to prominence as a pianist following World War I. In 1926, he became conductor of the Lübeck Musikverein and later conducted in Munich. In 1932, he formed his own chamber orchestra, and was one of the first to be interested in presenting music of the Baroque and Classical periods in a historically accurate way. Although his performances were not historically accurate by present-day standards,[according to whom?] they were for his time; e.g., he did conduct Bach and Mozart concertos from the keyboard, an unusual practice at that time.
In 1932, he returned once again to Berlin, succeeding Artur Schnabel in a teaching role at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, who had emigrated from Germany because of increasing anti-Semitism. In 1942, he moved back to Switzerland, temporarily putting his career on hold through World War II. After the war he began to perform again, and gave...
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