The pre-war Schubert recordings, Edwin Fischer (Impromptus D899 + D935, Wanderer Fantasy D760)

It's hard to imagine any living pianist offering Schubert at this level, at least consistently...As for sonics, these transfers strike me as a good compromise between the full-toned but scratchy sound of Pearl and the dull, over-filtered quality typical of EMI...Appian wins handily this time.

A Edwin Fischer has a sense of rhythm which is certainly never a metronomic sense of rhythm. His rhythm is unbridled and his freedom space outlined in phrasing. When listening to this version of the "Impromptus", the feeling that his interpretation is truly modern, almost an objective analysis, is the result of a combination of motricity in rhythm and precision in linking the musical phrases.
Edwin Fischer recorded two sets of Franz Schubert's "Impromptus" op. 90 and op. posth. 142, in a single session, at His Master's Voice studios in London on 8th and 9th March 1938. Certain "Impromptus" required several takes, particularly those in C minor, F minor and A-flat minor. However, Fischer always preferred the first version. All through his life, Fischer defended the conviction that music was at its most beautiful on the first day, a conviction unspoilt even by a few errors, inevitable in producing a record with wax, and which precluded editing. He shared this conviction with Cortot who was often said to like his false notes and with Claudio Arrau, gently nicknamed "Mister take one" by the sound engineers.
Regarding textual accuracy, in Artur Schnabel's recording of the same "Impromptus" in 1950 for the same recording company, an even fluctuating technique is used despite the fact that recording methods had made considerable progress. Moreover, Artur Schnabel is far more prolix in recording (but, in our opinion, far less inspired by this music than Fischer).