Biography (read more)
Andor Földes was born in Budapest on 21 December 1913, debuted with the Budapest Philharmonic at eight in a Mozart concerto, and at the Liszt Academy studied with Dohnányi and, from 1929, with Bartók himself. He emigrated in 1939, took American citizenship, later settled in Switzerland, and died in Herrliberg on 9 February 1992.
Földes was one of Bartók’s own pianists: his early recordings of the master’s works, made with the idiom learned at first hand, remain source documents, and his Beethoven and Brahms carry the same directness. In this catalogue he stands with Kocsis and Schiff in the Hungarian line, one generation closer to its origin.
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