Andor Foldes

Pianist Andor Foldes was born on 21 December 1913 in Budapest. He made his public debut performing in a Mozart concerto with the Budapest Philharmonic when he was eight years old. One year later, he entered the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and studied with Ernő Dohnányi as well as with Béla Bartók.

Foldes met his wife (Lili Rendy), a Hungarian journalist, in New York and they became U.S. citizens. Due to his numerous European concert engagements, he and his wife moved to Europe, settling in Switzerland in 1961.

Foldes was closely associated with the music of Béla Bartók, and he recorded the complete solo piano works of Bartók in the middle 1950s on 4 DG LPs. Some Bartók has also been recorded by Vox. In all his performances she showed himself as a pianist with a rather economical, sharply edged playing. A number of his recordings are still available on DG, Audite, Warner etc.

Foldes died on 9 February 1992.

  • Pizzicato

  • Archives