Géza Anda

Swiss pianist and conductor of Hungarian birth

Géza Anda (; 19 November 192113 June 1976) was a Swiss Hungarian pianist. A celebrated interpreter of classical and romantic repertoire, particularly noted for his performances and recordings of Mozart, he was also considered to be a tremendous interpreter of Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Bartók. In his heyday he was regarded as an amazing artist, possessed of a beautiful, natural and flawless technique that gave his concerts a unique quality. Most of his recordings were made on the Deutsche Grammophon label.

Géza Anda was born in 1921 in Budapest. He studied with Imre Stefaniai and Imre Keéri Szántó, then became a pupil of Ernst von Dohnányi and Zoltán Kodály at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. In 1940 he won the Liszt Prize, and in the next year, he made an international name for himself with his performance of Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2. He was regarded as the principal Bartók interpreter of his generation, even if other pianists since his death have made more obviously exciting recordings of that composer's concertos. Although he played very little Mozart in his early career, he became the first pianist to record the full cycle of Mozart's piano concerti; he recorded them between 1961 and 1969, conducting the orchestra from the keyboard. His performance of the Andante from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C on the soundtrack of the 1967 film Elvira Madigan led to the epithet "Elvira Madigan" often being applied to the concerto. For his recording of Mozart's Piano Concertos No. 17 & No. 21 with the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, he received the Grand Prix du Disque in 1963. "From the outset of his career, he was what one might call a philosopher virtuoso. In his lifelong quest for the perfect balance of head and heart, between intellect and instinct, he explored many facets of music making." During his career he collaborated with other directors, among which are worth highlighting Ferenc Fricsay where he joined the Berlin Radio Symphony, Claudio Abbado, Ernest Ansermet, Sir John Barbirolli, Karl Böhm, Ernest Bour, Eugen Jochum, Herbert von Karajan, Joseph Keilberth, István Kertész, Otto Klemperer, Rafael Kubelík, Ferdinand Leitner, Erich Leinsdorf, Fritz Reiner, Hans Rosbaud, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Carl Schuricht, Sir Georg Solti and George Szell.