Clara Haskil

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Clara Haskil, Zurich 1912.

Clara Haskil (born January 7, 1895 in Bucharest , † December 7, 1960 in Brussels ) was a Romanian- Swiss classical pianist . From 1949 she had Swiss citizenship. She was one of the most important pianists of the 20th century, who became famous above all as a Mozart interpreter.

Life

Clara Haskil was the middle of three musical daughters of Sephardic Jews . Her father Isaac ran a household goods store. She received her first piano lessons at the age of three from her mother Berthe, b. Moscuna. She was an educated woman and also taught the daughters in foreign languages. After her father's death in 1899, she also taught other children and set up a tailor's workshop. At the age of six Clara Haskil came to the Bucharest Conservatory . Brought to Vienna by an uncle , she played for Anton Door in 1902 . He enthusiastically recommended the child Richard Robert , the teacher of Rudolf Serkin and George Szell . At the age of 8, Haskil played Mozart's A major concerto, KV 488 . After three happy years with Robert, her uncle sent her to the Conservatoire de Paris , where he also lived with her. There she studied violin and piano with Joseph Morpain , Alfred Cortot and Lazare Lévy . In 1909 she won first prize for violin and second prize for piano, and in 1910 first prize for piano. The jury included Gabriel Fauré , Moritz Moszkowski , Raoul Pugno and Ricardo Viñes . The following year she gave concerts in Paris , Bucharest and Milan . Before Ferruccio Busoni in Zurich she played his famous transcription of Bach's Chaconne, the final movement of the D minor Partita for violin. Deeply impressed, Busoni wanted to win Haskil as a student and take him to Berlin. Throughout her life she regretted her mother's refusal because she was too young: she was only 16.

Her severe scoliosis began to develop in 1906, and from 1914 she was forced to wear a plaster corset for four years. After recovering in Switzerland, she resumed her career in Paris. Her mother died in 1917. After concerts in Europe she made her debut in 1924 in the USA, at the Aeolian Hall (New York) and in Boston . She first appeared in the United Kingdom in 1926 with the Hallé Orchestra under Hamilton Harty in Manchester . In America in the same year she played Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski .

From 1927 she lived again with her uncle in Paris. When he died in 1934, Haskil was left on his own for the first time. She often gave concerts with the Orchester National de la Radiodiffusion Française , in which her sister Jeanne Haskil was a violinist . Haskil's sight reading and memory helped her out of some embarrassments. She is said to have completed the 2nd piano concerto (Brahms) in two days. With the music patron Winnaretta Singer , the Princess Polignac, she became friends with Dinu Lipatti .

Although frequent illnesses, extreme stage fright and the rise of National Socialism made life difficult, she gave concerts in Switzerland , Belgium and the USA in the 1930s . With her sister Jeanne and some members of the National Orchestra, she fled from the National Socialists to Marseille in 1941. Like Norbert Glanzberg and other Jews, she found refuge with Countess Pastré. In May 1942, a tumor on the pituitary gland that was pressing on the optic nerve had to be removed. Shortly before the occupation of Marseilles by the Wehrmacht , she was able to leave for Switzerland on November 6, 1942. Her sister Jeanne found a hiding place in the country in 1943 and was able to flee from the National Socialists in 1944.

Grave of the Haskil sisters on the Cimetière Montparnasse , division 4.

Back in Paris after the end of the Second World War , she played in December 1946 at Wigmore Hall and in six BBC programs . A Dutch artist agent helped her to concerts and radio broadcasts in the Netherlands in 1949. For the first time she was able to live on the income and afford her own wing. After receiving Swiss citizenship in 1949 , she lived in Vevey from 1951 to 1960 . Although the scoliosis was painful and restricted her resilience, Clara Haskil performed with major orchestras and chamber musicians in the 1950s . In a duet she liked to play with Pau Casals and Géza Anda , preferably with Arthur Grumiaux . After a concert in Paris, both traveled to Brussels. Upon arrival, she fell on a station staircase. Having operated on in vain, she died a month before her 66th birthday. Clara Haskil was buried on the Cimetière Montparnasse in Paris.

estate

The paper documents from her estate are in the Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire de Lausanne , their audio recordings are kept in the Swiss National Sound Archives in Lugano .

Honors

Memorial plaque on Haskil's former home in Vevey

literature

  • Bernard Gavoty, Roger Hauert: Clara Haskil ( The great interpreters series ). Kister, Geneva 1962.
  • Cord Garben: Past luck ... the art and fate of legendary pianists. Wilhelmshaven 2018, 2nd edition. Pp. 155-174. ISBN 978-3-7959-1013-6 .
  • Rita Wolfensberger : Clara Haskil. With contributions by Pierre Fournier , Ferenc Fricsay , Joseph Keilberth , Rafael Kubelík , Igor Markevitch , Peter Rybar . Scherz, Bern 1961.
  • Jerôme Spycket: Clara Haskil. A biography. Hallwag, Bern 1977, ISBN 3-444-10209-7 .
  • Jutta Dick, Marina Sassenberg (ed.): Jewish women in the 19th and 20th centuries. Lexicon on life and work. Reinbek 1993, ISBN 3-499-16344-6 .
  • Monica Steegmann, Eva Rieger (ed.): Women with wings. Insel, Frankfurt / Main and Leipzig 1996, ISBN 3-458-33414-9 , pp. 245-292.
  • Wolfram Goertz: Smiling quietly. Clara Haskil's gorgeous recording of Robert Schumann's piano concerto. In: Die Zeit , No. 17 from April 19, 2012, online

Web links

Commons : Clara Haskil  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jérôme Spycket: Clara Haskil. Bern 1977, p. 29.
  2. ↑ Irène Minder-Jeanneret: Clara Haskil. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . August 23, 2006 , accessed June 12, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Jérôme Spycket: Clara Haskil. Bern 1977, p. 40.
  4. ^ Website of the International Clara Haskil Piano Competition
  5. ^ Lipatti-Haskil Foundation
  6. ^ Communication from Prof. JM Huizing, September 9, 2012.
  7. Jump up ↑ Bradley P. Tolppanen: Churchill in North America, 1929: A Three Month Tour of Canada and the United States , McFarland, Jefferson 2014, ISBN 978-0-7864-7922-1 , p. 178, preview in Google Book Search
  8. ↑ The shy one. In: The magazine. April 5, 2019, accessed on April 6, 2019 (Swiss Standard German).
personal data
SURNAME Haskil, Clara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian-Swiss classical pianist
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Bucharest
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1960
Place of death Brussels