Romanian-born
Clara Haskil evokes a wistful look of appreciation from those senior citizens lucky enough to have heard her in person; she died in 1960 and her body of recordings is not large. This live performance from the 1957 Salzburg Festival is a valuable addition to the group of available
Haskil discs and really a good introduction to
Haskil for the buyer who's never heard her before. The explosion of applause from the restrained Austrian crowd that follows each sonata on this recording gives a clue as to how compelling her live concerts were. The concert contained sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, and all are superb. Among the hallmarks of
Haskil's style was a deceptive restraint; she tends to begin a movement in a circumspect way, but very soon the listener realizes that she is after the long line in preference to the local effect. She thinks out the balance among movements in unfailingly original ways (as was the custom in her time, she avoids repeats), and where that balance calls for restraint to be abandoned she is perfectly capable of doing so. The final Presto con fuoco of the Beethoven Piano Sonata in E flat major, Op. 31/3, might be described as hell-for-leather. The smoothness and formal perfection of
Haskil's playing of Mozart's keyboard concertos exerted an influence on many other pianists, and those qualities are on display here in the smaller scale of the Piano Sonata in C major, K. 330. Perhaps most beautiful of all is the Schubert Piano Sonata in B flat major, K. 960, whose opening movement with its "heavenly length" has rarely been kept so well under the control of a grand design. Sample track 8 -- the opening bars seem almost noncommital, but soon the listener is completely immersed in the discourse. Live sound for 1957 is quite good, with no more coughing than one would expect of an Austrian March evening.