Géza Anda – Géza Anda Foundation

Biography

Géza Anda was born in Budapest on November 19, 1921.

He studied with Ernst von Dohnányi and Zoltan Kodály at the Budapest Academy of Music, and won the Liszt Prize in 1940.

A year later, shortly after playing Brahms under Mengelberg, he made his debut in the Berlin Philharmonie, where Furtwängler dubbed him “the troubador of the piano”.

He was only 20 – and had already begun to teach piano.

In 1943 he settled in Switzerland.

From 1953 to 1955 he gave a masterclass at the International Summer Academy of the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and in 1960 he succeeded Edwin Fischer as director of the Lucerne masterclasses.

From 1969 he taught in Zürich.

From 1952 until his death, Anda made a solo appearance every year at the Salzburg Festival – a record matched by no other concert artist in Mozart’s birthplace.

He directed Mozart concertos from the keyboard with the Camerata Academica, and took it on tour. With the same ensemble he became the first interpreter to record all Mozart’s piano concertos, an achievement which brought him numerous gramophone awards.

For 16 of the 27 concertos, Anda wrote his own cadenzas.

Géza Anda’s repertoire matched the breadth of his public.

What people heard was a style of playing that struck to the human core of all great music.

From 1952 until his death, Anda made a solo appearance every year at the Salzburg Festival – a record matched by no other concert artist in Mozart’s birthplace.

For 16 of the 27 concertos, Anda wrote his own cadenzas.

Géza Anda’s repertoire matched the breadth of his public.

What people heard was a style of playing that struck to the human core of all great music.