Isolde Ahlgrimm (31 July 1914 – 11 October 1995) was a Viennese harpsichordist and fortepianist who, with her husband, instrument collector Erich Fiala (1911–78), played a central role in the revival of interest in the use of period instruments for the performance of Baroque and Classical music. Ahlgrimm and Fiala presented their long-running series of Concerte für Kenner und Liebhaber ("Concerts for connoisseurs and amateurs") in Vienna between ...
more
Isolde Ahlgrimm (31 July 1914 – 11 October 1995) was a Viennese harpsichordist and fortepianist who, with her husband, instrument collector Erich Fiala (1911–78), played a central role in the revival of interest in the use of period instruments for the performance of Baroque and Classical music. Ahlgrimm and Fiala presented their long-running series of Concerte für Kenner und Liebhaber ("Concerts for connoisseurs and amateurs") in Vienna between 1937 and 1956; this involved 74 different programs of music from the 16th to the 20th centuries, much of this repertoire receiving its first modern performance.
She was the first to perform and record virtually the entire output of JS Bach for harpsichord. She performed The Bach Cycle in 12 programs in Vienna, 1949–50 and 1952–53. Before some 600 subscribers at the preconcert lectures for four of the programs in the first Bach Cycle, Ahlgrimm was the first harpsichordist to argue the case for performing Bach’s last work, The Art of Fugue, in...
less
