A wanderer between worlds: born in Lyon, pianist Walter Gieseking studied the piano in Hanover and soon embarked on a world career as a soloist- first in Europe, then in the U SA. He was an acknowledged master of the French repertoire- his recordings of piano works by Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy are legendary. Gieseking’s playing lived from his accuracy and gift of observation, but also from being at home in various European cultures and possessing an awareness of widely differing musical forms, which was reflected in a very wide repertoire extending beyond the classics to composers then less well-known, such as Hindemith, Schoenberg, Busoni and Szymanowski. His piano technique revealed a hitherto unknown lightness. Gieseking translated feelings effortlessly into physical movement, resulting in a unique emotional immediacy of sound. The combination of precision and such unbridled devotion again proved its worth in Walter Gieseking’s recording of Mozart’s piano works, music which demands the highest technical ability alongside an essential lightness in its acoustic. The present complete recording illustrates why Walter Gieseking must necessarily be considered one of the most important pianists of the twentieth century.
