10 CD box set featuring ten original albums from the award-winning French pianist Monique Haas. Masterful recordings of the French repertoire, plus Mozart-concert recordings from Europe and the US and rarely heard works by contemporary composers from the 20th century.
Monique Haas was exceptional among the piano virtuosos of her time. Born in Paris in 1909, where she also died in 1987, she combined charm and wit with straightforward formal objectivity. Her award-winning recordings of French repertoire as well as her Mozart recordings, which can be heard in this 10-CD collection, demonstrate this impressively. Married to composer Marcel Mihalovici, she was also open to contemporary works. Darius Milhaud dedicated his second piano sonata to her.
Haas had won the first prize of the Paris Conservatoire at eighteen and went on to study with Rudolf Serkin, Robert Casadesus, and George Enescu, whose chamber music partner she also became. She passed on her technical and artistic knowledge to new generations in numerous master classes and while teaching at the Paris Conservatory.
She performs alongside orchestras such as Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Munch, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paul Paray and Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Ferdinand Leitner.