Name Claude Helffer | Role Musical Artist | |
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Albums Trois sonates pour piano, Chamber Music 1955-1990 Similar People | ||
Claude helffer plays debussy etude no 11 pour les arp ges compos s
Claude Helffer (June 18, 1922 – October 27, 2004) was a French pianist noted particularly for his advocacy of 20th-century music.
Contents
- Claude helffer plays debussy etude no 11 pour les arp ges compos s
- Bla Bartk Microcosmos Part I II III complete Claude Helffer
- Biography
- Works
- Teaching
- Discography
- References
Béla Bartók, Microcosmos, Part I, II & III, complete, Claude Helffer
Biography
He was born in Paris, and began piano lessons at the age of five and from the age of ten until the outbreak of World War II he studied with Robert Casadesus. During the War he entered the élite École polytechnique and fought for the Resistance (in the Maquis du Vercors). After the War he studied theory and composition with René Leibowitz. He made his début in Paris in 1948 and from 1954 appeared regularly in the concerts of the Domaine musical. He married the noted ethnomusicologist, Mireille Helffer, whom he met at the Lycée Molière two years earlier, in June 1946.
Works
Helffer gave many premières of new works and was the dedicatee of several notable works, including Erikhthon (Xenakis, 1974), Concerto (Boucourechliev, 1975), Stances (Betsy Jolas, 1978), Concerto no. 1 (Luis de Pablo, 1980), Envoi (Gilles Tremblay, 1982), and Modifications (Michael Jarrell, 1983). Conductors he collaborated with included Boulez, Bour, Gielen, Leibowitz, Maderna, Marriner, Martinon, Van Otterloo, Prêtre and Scherchen. His discography includes the complete piano music of Schoenberg (Grand Prix du Disque), Debussy and Ravel and the Sonatas of Boulez, Berg and Barraqué.
Teaching
Helffer gave master classes all over the world, most notably at the Salzburg Summer Academy from 1985 to 1998.