AGI JAMBOR (1909-1997)
Hungarian pianist

Agi Jambor was a prodigy whe was playing Mozart before she could read.  At the age of 17, and for the next six years, she studied and served as Edwin Fisher's protegee in Berlin. In the midst of a successful performing career, she went into exile, moving first to Paris, then to Holland.

In Paris she was discovered by Alfred Cortot who held her in great esteem.  She was encouraged to participate in the 3rd International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition (1937) in Warsaw where she was the 5th Prize winner.  As a point of reference, Emil Gilels took 4th prize that year.

When the Nazi'x invaded Holland in 1940, Agi Jambor joined the resistance.  She emmigrated with her hysband to the USA in 1947 where she continued her very succesful career as a concert pianist.  In 1953 she performed with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra for the first time.

Agi Jambor's Chopin is exquisite and very personal.  You can't possibly confuse her playing of this music with anyone else's.  Like other women pianists who speak with their own voices when playing, she does not overwhel the music with stylistic or emotional effects.  Her's are subtle but distinct.  It is this very aspect of what seems to be the way the great women pianists played that I find so satisfying and frankly superior to much of the playing of their male counterparts.

I discovered several of Agi Jambor's Bach albums, the Partitas and the Toccatas, which were long out of print when I was a student and treasure them to this day.  What a magnificent pianist she was

Bach  Prelude and Fugue in A minor