CHOSTAKOVITCH Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Henri GORAIEB/George SEBASTIAN

Dmitri Chostakovitch: Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet and String Orchestra, Op.35
I. Allegretto
II. Allegretto
III. Moderato
IV. Allegro con brio
Henri GORAIEB, Piano
Pierre POLLIN, Trumpet
George SEBASTIAN, Conductor with the National Orchestra (RTF).
Recording of a concert at ‘Theatre des Champs Elysees’, Paris, 10 April 1962.

Henri Goraieb (1935 - 2021)
Born in Lebanon on May 9, 1935, to a Lebanese father and a French mother, Henri Goraieb possesses a dual Lebanese-French culture. Henri Goraieb at only 13 years old performed for the first time Edward Grieg's Concerto in A minor. Later he went to Paris where he obtained the ``Diplôme d’Etudes pour le Piano`` at the age of 18 from ``Conservatoire National de Musique`` with the highest distinction. Then he obtained the temperament of a concert pianist in Paris while training with great pedagogues, like Germaine Mounier and Marguerite Long. Finally, it was with the Russian pianist Oleg Ivanov, a professor at the Moscow Conservatory, that he was able to combine his profound musicality with the legendary Russian piano technique.
Henri Goraieb is a soloist with many prestigious orchestras and has given numerous concerts and recitals in major European capitals and cities. Two tours in Russia were greeted triumphantly. In Europe, India, and various Middle Eastern countries, the press unanimously hailed the performances of this great pianist.
With his love and profound knowledge of the opera, Henri Goraieb animated for almost 20 years, the 1980s to 1990s, many programs broadcasted on the French National Radio “France Musique”; notably his weekly programs devoted to lyrical art named “Voix souvenirs”, and “Premières Loges” with the most prestigious voices in the 20th century.

Georges Sebastian (1903 - 1959)
Georges Sebastian was a French conductor of Hungarian birth, particularly associated with Wagner and the post-romantic repertory (Bruckner, Mahler, Richard Strauss). He studied first the piano and violin in his native Budapest, before turning to composition. He then worked with Leo Weiner, Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók. In 1921, he was engaged as répétiteur at the Munich State Opera, where he worked with Bruno Walter and became his assistant conductor the following year. From 1923 to 1945 he appeared as conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the opera houses of Hamburg and Leipzig, the Städtische Oper Berlin, the Moscow Radio and Philharmonic Orchestra, and the San Francisco Opera. After the war he settled in France and made his debut at the Palais Garnier in 1947. He was also very active conducting on French radio, notably the complete symphonies of Bruckner and Mahler.