"Clara Haskill, recorded here in a recital given on September 7, 1956, in Besançon, is heard at her very best ... The piano sound is particularly natural and clean on this transfer" - Henry Fogel, Fanfare

"As Henry Fogel noted in his overview of Pristine’s sound restoration (Fanfare 31:2), Mr. Rose’s work is nothing short of incredible. Haskil’s piano tone sings out as warmly and naturally here as it does on her stereo recording of Mozart piano concertos with Igor Markevitch (Philips), a landmark disc that, sadly, was Haskil’s last. Highly recommended."
- Fanfare, May/June 2008

Clara Haskil

Clara Haskil was born in Bucarest. Romania on 7 January 1895. She came, as she later wrote: "of a family in which music held a very important place. and was taken while still a child to Vienna by an uncle who was a great music lover. There I began my musical education. As far as I can remember, I was sensitive, and even hypersensitive to music. My difficulty was which instrument to choose, because I was as much attracted by the violin as by the piano."

A child prodigy who made her concert debut at age 10, Haskil studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1905 (from 1907 on with Cortot, who had just been appointed to the faculty). In 1911 Busoni heard her play in Basel and invited her to join his school in Berlin. Because of ill health (which plagued her all her life) Haskil was compelled to decline. Soon after leaving the Conservatoire, she was forced because of sickness to give up playing for four years. She resumed her career and again started to give public concerts in 1921.

Although Ysaye, Casals and Enesco had chosen her as a sonata partner by the mid-1920's, Haskil was modest, shy. and plagued by self-doubt to the end of her days. She recalls: "Although they appreciated my playing and complimented me on it, they looked in vain for me beside them when the time came to bow to the audience. From the wings, where I had taken refuge, I could see the great master make his bow. I was terrified to go back onto the platform; to go first seemed impossible ... I felt alone when I played with Enesco. because I could not imagine that there was really any true relationship between that man of genius and [me]. And yet we were born in the same country and people said that our styles went well together ... Unfortunately, an extreme shyness and inborn timidity made me afraid to meet people; and everyone used to say of me, 'she comes in creeping along by the wall.'''

From 1927 to 1940, Haskil lived in Paris where she gave frequent concerts with the Radio Orchestra. Here she met her countryman Dinu Lipatti, the brilliant shortlived pianist, who was to become one of her few close friends, in 1938. With the German push into France she retreated with the Radio first to Rennes, then to Marseille. There she developed a tumor on the optic nerve and was saved from unbearable migraines and double vision by a successful operation.

In November 1942, the Germans occupied the south of France; thanks to influential connections, Haskil managed to escape to Switzerland, where she lived with her oldest sister for the rest of her life. She became a Swiss subject in 1949. After the War, her career at last took on momentum and she became internationally famous, appearing at major festivals (notably Lucerne. Prades and Montreux) either as soloist or as partner of such well-known artists as violinist Arthur Grumiaux and pianists Geza Anda and Nikita Magaloff. She excelled, in particular, in Bach and Mozart. piano concertos, the Schuman concerto and solo works ("Abegg" Variations, Kinderscenen, Bunte Blatter, Waldscenen) and the Beethoven violin-piano sonatas (in which her last illustrious partner was Grumiaux). Clara Haskil died in Brussels on 7 December 1960.

From the sleevenotes, ©1981, Music & Arts Inc.

Find out more:   Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 18 : 4. Presto con fuoco CD covers to print:   CD-writing cuesheet: [What's that?]

ADVERTISEMENT

Web Pristine Classical     Pristine Classical - bringing you DRM-free historic classical FLAC and MP3 download music since 2005