... Edwin Fischer, one of the most prominent German pianists, to whom the French audience finally paid their tribute of admiration.

The recital was defined by an atmosphere of profound introspection. How beautiful were those Schubert Impromptus, where Fischer knew so well how to highlight the finesse, the melancholy and the briskness in these charming pages!

Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia, which Fischer has ingeniously revisited without stripping it of its grandeur, was excellently rendered. This work is, without doubt, one of his "specialities”!

Which is more than I can say about Chopin’s Barcarolle and Nocturne in B major. I wonder why so much harshness? How different this vision - solid, but lacking refinement – is from Cortot’s, so subtle and aristocratic!

In the Appassionata, Fischer was truly grand, and proved he owns a first-rate sound; not since Schnabel have I heard this sonata so beautifully performed!

Among the six or so encores Fischer, with his habitual kindness, gave, I will find it hard to forget an Andante by Mozart, played to perfection.

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This year Maestro George Georgescu seemed fitter than ever. He recently conducted, at the Théâtre Châtelet, strongly affecting the auditors, a concert of particular beauty.

Richard Strauss’s symphonic poem Death and Transfiguration was performed with extraordinary verve, and Beethoven Fifth symphony was simply superb. How compelling Maestro Georgescu’s final crescendo was, beginning with an impressive pianissimo on an A flat chord as it did – the ascent seemed, consequently, immense!

In between we heard the Frank’sPrélude, choral et fugue in Gabriel Pierné’s orchestration as well as the evocative Concerto moldave for cello by Stan Golestan, a work of strong Romantic influences classically set. On themes which bring to memory the song of our Romanian fatherland, Golestan’s Moldavian concerto is one of his best symphonic pages.

Mrs Garbousova showed a balanced temper and a considerable technique.