Clara Haskil Mozart and Bach

Album review

Romanian-born Clara Haskil was one of the supreme Mozart and Beethoven interpreters of the first half of the twentieth century (she died in 1960 in a train-station accident). Her precise, transparent, and graceful style was only intermittently captured on recordings. This rather mysterious collectors' disc (where does it come from? what are the unspecified "original sources recordings: 1956" from which they are taken? what is "hi-end restoration technology?" why is there a child's drawing of a cottage split between summer and winter scenes of the cover?) does not do her justice. Two of the works feature Géza Anda on a second piano, with the Philharmonia Orchestra providing reasonably agile support, in the same way that one says of a football lineman that he's fast for a big guy. The opening Mozart Concerto for two pianos in E flat major, K. 365, shows Haskil's virtues, with vivid delineation of the keyboard parts and beautifully developed teamwork that extends Haskil's variety of phrasing -- she never played a repeated phrase the same way twice, but she never seemed capricious, either -- to all four hands. The subsequent Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K. 595, is not one of her better efforts; it seems too busy, and the childlike quality of the last movement is lost. This concerto especially is marred by terrible sound despite the vaunted hi-end restoration technology (LPs in 1956 generally sounded much better than this); with the opening orchestral passage from the Kölner Gürzenich orchestra, conducted by Otto Klemperer, you may look behind you, if you're in a car, to see whether emergency vehicles are approaching. The final Bach Concerto for two harpsichords in C major, played here on two pianos, has the punchy quality of Haskil's Scarlatti performances but is not especially idiomatic. For Haskil completists only; if you are looking for an introduction to this artist, sample other discs.
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