Viennese pianist Friedrich Wührer studied piano with Franz Schmidt and composition with Joseph Marx. Admired by Pfitzner and Reger, who dedicated works to him, Wührer had a strong interest in contemporary composers but on disc his major recordings include the first nominally complete cycle of Schubert's piano sonatas and the Beethoven piano concertos. These recordings of Piano Concertos nos. 2 and 3 were taped in Stuttgart with conductor Walther Davisson, a distinguished erstwhile violinist, and originally released in 1956. A few years later, during London concerts, a critic wrote of Wührer’s ‘magnificent playing in Beethoven using a tremendous range of dynamics and completely without resort to special effects’, qualities that apply equally to these classic Vox recordings.

The Beethoven concerto recordings were reissued on Tahra TAH704–707, which contained the piano concerto cycle, the Triple Concerto (on which Wührer plays) and recordings of the last three sonatas, opp. 109–111.

The dates of recordings seem not to be known with any precision, but released by 1956 so presumably recorded at some time between 1953 and 1955.

MusicWeb International wrote of these recordings ‘[Davisson] scores well in the C minor, again with the Stuttgart Pro Musica. There’s a lot of detail here, and quite a good sound spectrum for Vox. The first movement cadenza is characteristically powerful, Wührer driving into it as he invariably did.’

The French magazine Disques no.93 wrote of Piano Concerto no.2: ‘For me, this pianist is one of today’s best living musicians. The rigour of his piano playing is faultless and makes no concessions...the sensitive variety of his attacks, the singing subtlety of his phrasing served by a perfect bow-like legato…this [recording] surpasses in grandeur even Kempff’s version.’

The concertos were parcelled out to three orchestras and four conductors – not a recorded cycle in the conventional sense: Piano Concerto no.1 was with the Vienna Pro Musica and Hans Swarowsky; no.4 with the Bamberg Symphony and Jonel Perlea and no.5 with the Vienna Pro Musica and Heinrich Hollreiser.

Wührer began recording in the 78rpm era but in the LP era he recorded quite widely including the Brahms Violin Sonatas with Wolfgang Schneiderhan and the Cello Sonatas with Joseph Schuster.