. . . .or click on the link here for Audio Player – French National Orch., André Cluytens – Clara Haskil, piano – Chopin: Piano Concerto Number 2 – recorded April 1954 – ORTF, Paris.
Something very familiar this weekend, but since I take requests and one of my readers asked if there was any live concerts featuring Clara Haskil around, I had to dig one up. I was also going to put this up last week, but owing to a bug in a piece of software, the whole site crashed and this one had to wait until today.
Probably not all that rare, particularly if you’re a collector of the work of Clara Haskil. She was one of the most widely respected and revered artists of the 20th century. Sadly not recording as much as say, Artur Rubinstein, but she had a memorable output of commercial recordings, which are still being reissued today. Likewise too, is her impressive number of live concert recordings, issued in various forms throughout the years. This performance, of the Chopin 2nd Piano Concerto comes by way of a release on the Music & Arts label in the mid-1990s. I am pretty sure it’s still in print, or on another label. This one features the French National Orchestra, conducted by the legendary André Cluytens and was recorded by the ORTF in Paris on April of 1954. It’s a wonderful pairing with two giants of Music playing one of the great Romantic Piano concertos.
Although not obscure, rare or forgotten, it’s nonetheless a historic performance of a familiar work that may not be all that familiar with everyone – especially if you’re just hearing about Clara Haskil now. Hopefully, it will prompt you to hit the browse button and find more.
It’s well worth it.
I agree with you Gordon, a fantastic pianist as well as a great concert !