Alfred Cortot

Romanian pianist Clara Haskil began her career as a child prodigy at the Bucharest Conservatory under Richard Robert at age 7, making her debut at the age of 10. Haskil ultimately graduated from Alfred Cortot's class at the Paris Conservatoire at 15 with the Prémier Prix to her credit. By the age of 18, however, Haskil was forced to endure the first of many physical setbacks that would hold back her career, in this case an attack of meningitis that kept her in a body cast for four years. Haskil did recover, making her New York debut in 1924 and her London debut in 1926.

American pianist Ruth Slenczynska, who turned 97 at the beginning of 2022, has had a remarkable musical life and makes a touching return to Decca after 66 years. The last living piano pupil of the great Russian composer/pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff, she brings a touching authenticity to her program, especially the opening pieces by Rachmaninoff himself. Indeed, listening to Slenczynska’s iridescent playing, it’s possible to imagine the great master guiding her interpretations. Following on are two charming pieces by her fellow student Samuel Barber, before Chopin’s “Berceuse,” a gentle nod to Slenczynska’s great friend, the legendary piano virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz. Pieces by Debussy, Bach, and Grieg all pay homage to some of Slenczynska’s piano mentors, including Alfred Cortot and Josef Hofmann. This is a precious and beautiful album that offers a last magical glimpse into a bygone musical world.

A cosmopolitan fluent in 7 languages, a humanitarian, and a violinist of extraordinary gifts, Szeryng became renowned as a musician's musician by combining a virtuoso technique with a probing discernment of the highest order. –Nicolas Slonimsky

Idil Biret (born 21 November 1941 in Ankara, Turkey) is a Turkish concert pianist, renowned for her interpretations of the Romantic repertoire. She manifested an outstanding gift for music at the age of three and was trained at the Paris Conservatory under the tutelage of Nadia Boulanger. She studied with Alfred Cortot and was a lifelong disciple of Wilhelm Kempff who considered her as her best student. Since the age of sixteen Idil Biret has given concerts throughout the world with major orchestras including the London Symphony, the Philharmonia, BBC Orchestras, Leningrad Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Staatskapelle, Berlin Radio Symphony, French National Orchestra, Polish Radio Symphony, Orchestre Suisse Romande, Warsaw Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic and Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Antonin Dvorak - Klavierquartette op. 23 & 87 / Klavierquintett op. 81 / Bagatellen op. 47
Juilliard String Quartet - Rudolf Firkusny
EAC+LOG+CUE | 2xFLAC: 541 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Sony Classical # 5200192000 | Country/Year: Europe 2005
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

…Firkušný taught at the Juilliard School in New York, and in Aspen, Colorado as well as in the Berkshire Music Centre in Tanglewood. Among his students were Yefim Bronfman, Eduardus Halim, Alan Weiss, Sara Davis Buechner, Carlisle Floyd, Kathryn Selby, Avner Arad, June de Toth, Richard Cionco, Robin McCabe, Anya Laurence, Natasa Veljkovic and Carlo Grante. After the fall of the communist regime in his homeland (the "Velvet Revolution" of 1989), Firkušný returned to Czechoslovakia to perform for the first time after more than 40 years of absence…