CLARA HASKIL PLAYS CONCERTI

On this page, Clara Haskil plays concerti by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Schumann, and a number of chamber works by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Busoni.  Follow this link for many delights as Clara Haskil plays Mozart concerti.

Talk about a pianist all the leading conductors wanted to play with.  Here is a partial list: Ernest Ansermet, Sir John Barbirolli, Rudolf Baumgartner, Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Adrian Boult, Pablo Calals, Sergiu Celibidache, André Cluytens, Victor Desarzens, Ferenc Fricsay, Alceo Galliera, Carlo Maria Giulini, Inghelbrecht, Eugen Jochum, Herbert von Karajan, Rudolf Kempe, Otto Klemperer, Rafael Kubelík, Igor Markevitch, Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch, Paul Paray, Bernhard Paumgartner, Hans Rosbaud, Willem van Otterloo, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Carl Schuricht, George Solti, Leopold Stokowski, Hans Swoboda, George Szell, and Carlo Zecchi, himself one of the greatest pianists of them all.  These were the great names of my youth, though I knew them from vinyl records only.  But they were as real to me as was the corner grocer.

I eventually met and had the opportunity to speak with many of them when I was an usher at Carnegie Hall for several seasons as a college student, among them van Otterloo, Giulini, who autographed my score of Mahler's 2nd symphony, Kubelik, von Karajan, and Stokowski, and heard several of the others in concert.    I did not think to do so, but I am prepared to wager that had I asked them who was their favorite pianist with whom to play concerti, and had they been willing to answer, they would, nearly to a man, have declared that there is little that can compare with the way Haskil plays concerti.

I love the Beethoven G major concerto with Carlo Zecchi, and I love that he is conducting, two supreme pianists, one as conductor, and very much in tune with each other making for a splendid performance.

These pages in which Clara Haskil plays concerti are, as it turns out, mana for the Haskil afficionado.  There of multiple recordings with different conductors and orchestra of a number of the works she performed regularly, including three complete performances of the Beethoven 4th, two of the Chopin 2nd, two each of the Mozart K 271, K 415 and K 459, and six of the Mozart D minor, K 466.

We also have several examples of concerti for two pianos she performed with Géza Anda.

Bach  Keyboard Concerto 5 in F minor, BWV 1056
Pablo Casals conducting the Prades Festival Orchestra

i Allegro
03:34 ➢ ii Largo
06:42 ➢ iii Presto

recorded in 1950