Clara Haskil

[Karafan]

Good afternoon all

Despite having a sizeable CD collection (don't start me on the books, DVDs, etc. though....!) I find that Clara Haskil is regrettably unrepresented and though I have heard her recommended by various people, I wonder if the Haskil congnoscenti among you might give me the pleasure of your thoughts on her, your favourite performances and where you would point me in the pursuit of further exploration please.

Many thanks as ever!

Best

Karafan

[amateur51]

Hello Karafan!

Clara Haskil is a wonderful pianist and there is an outstanding bargain currently available:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clara-Haskil/dp/B0040IAZVM/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1318691648&sr=1-1

That's 17 CDs for £35 (I paid £45 and don't regret it for a moment). You get the complete violin sonatas by Beethoven and Mozart in outstanding performances with Arthur Grumiaux (they played these works all over Europe in concert) plus concertos and solo pieces by Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann. There is a considerable number of CDs of her playing mostly Mozart concertos in off-air performances too but this box will set you off to a flying start. The Amazon review page gives you a complete list of contents.

[gurnemanz]

I only have four discs, all on the set mentioned above which looks very tempting but I must show some restraint. I have this disc:

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//E4497222.htm

which is marvellous in 1957 mono. The fingerwork is crystal clear - Haskil modestly declared of it: "at last, a recording of me that is at least 80 per cent good".
I also have the the 3CD Beethoven Sonatas with Grumiaux - these are well-known classic versions also in mono - they came on the 100CD Brilliant ClassicsComplete Beethoven box.

[aeolium]

Clara Haskil is a wonderful pianist and there is an outstanding bargain currently available:

am51, I too love Haskil's playing, and I have her recordings of the Beethoven violin sonatas with Grumiaux in a separate box. I just wonder with some of these multi-disc collections as to why there are often multiple recordings of the same work. In that Haskil box you mention, there are four versions of the Mozart D minor piano concerto. OK, they are with different orchestras and conductors, but I wonder if that's of more interest to completists. If I were getting a box set featuring an artist I would generally rather have only one version of each work (and perhaps a smaller and cheaper box).

[umslopogaas]

I have the following Haskil recordings on LP, but I dont know if they ever made it to CD:

Beethoven pc3/Markevitch/Lamoureux Ch. O./stereo Philips
Chopin pc 2/Falla Nights in the Gardens of Spain/Markevitch/Orch. des Concerts Lamoureux/stereo Philips
Mozart pc 13/variations 'Ah vous direz je, mamam'/Baumgartner/Lucerne Fest. Strings/stereo DG
Mozart pc 19/Fricsay/BPO/mono DG

[Karafan]

Thanks for the pointers, chums: have plumped for the CH Edition 17CD box. So I will shortly be finding out, I hope, what all the fuss is about!

Karafan

[Barbirollians]

I have finally caught up with this box although I have long loved the Mozart recordings with Fricsay,Markevitch and a Hanssler classics release with Schuricht - can't wait to get started on it.