Prague Recordings - 5CD

Described as charismatic, unique and exceptional, Ida Haendel fully deserves all three distinctions. Born in 1928 into a Polish Jewish family, she was a child prodigy who played Beethoven’s concerto at the age of five and, at 85, taught master classes in London. After her Prague debut in 1957, she returned to the city repeatedly throughout the 1960s, performing mainly with the Czech Philharmonic and Karel Ančerl, while pianist Alfréd Holeček was her exclusive recital partner, and recording in the studio. This album contains all of Ida Haendel’s surviving live and studio recordings made in Prague up to 1965 and held in the archives of Supraphon and Czech Radio, many released here for the first time. Alongside virtuoso pieces and sonatas, it includes concertos by Beethoven, Stravinsky, Wieniawski and her signature composer, Sibelius, with music by Béla Bartók, Johannes Brahms, Alexandr Glazunov, Fritz Kreisler, William Kroll, Édouard Lalo, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Niccolò Paganini, Maurice Ravel, Pablo de Sarasate, Igor Stravinsky, Karol Szymanowski and Giuseppe Tartini. Ida Haendel performs with Alfréd Holeček, Karel Ančerl, Václav Smetáček, the Czech Philharmonic and the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK).