Maurice Hasson has established an international reputation for
performances of deep musical sensitivity combined with an apparently
effortless virtuoso technique. After his first recital in London,
he was hailed by “The Times” as “an aristocrat
among violinists”.
Maurice Hasson was born in
France and is citizen of both France and Venezuela. He studied
at the Paris Conservatoire where he graduated with a First Prize
for violin, a “Grand Prix” for chamber music and the
first “Prix d’Honneur” to be awarded for sixty
years. He became a pupil of Henryk Szeryng, who had an important
artistic influence on him.
Maurice Hasson has been based
in London since 1973. He made his USA debut with the Cleveland
Orchestra under Lorin Maazel and since has been invited to play
with the Orchestra many times in both North and South America.
He appears with all the major symphony orchestras and in chamber
music throughout Europe, the Nordic countries, USA, Israel, South
America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. He is also a
frequent guest of European radio and television stations. He was
invited by the BBC to celebrate Paganini’s Bicentenary in
a public televised concert, giving a memorable performance of
the No.1 Concerto. He contributed to the commemoration of the
250th anniversary of the death of Antonio Stradivari with Vivaldi’s
“Four Seasons” performed in the Gala Stradivarius
Concert at the Barbican. He just returned from a very succesful
tour in Japan.
Maurice Hasson has played under the baton of Sir Colin Davis,
Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Kurt Masur, Michel Plasson, Eliahu Inbal,
Eduardo Mata, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Sir Alexander Gibson,
Sachio Fujioka, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Raymond
Leppard, Paavo Berglund, Sir Charles Groves, Carlos Riazuelo,
Pinchas Steinberg, Sir Neville Marriner …
He has recorded for EMI-MFP, ASV, Pickwick and Philips. Many of
his recordings have been singled out for special praise, amongst
them Paganini Concerto No.1, Bach’s Double Concerto with
Henryk Szeryng (Academy of St.Martin’s in the Fields/Marriner),
“Virtuoso Violin” with Ian Brown, Gonzalo Castellanos
Yumar’s Violin Concerto, a work dedicated to him (London
Symphony Orchestra, the composer conducting) and Sonatas by Fauré,
Franck and Debussy with Christian Ivaldi.
Maurice Hasson is a Professor and Honorary Member of the Royal
Academy of Music in London. His masterclasses, which he gives
at several international festivals, are much sought after. He
is a permanent guest of the Pablo Casals’ Festival in France.
In 1996 Maurice Hasson was granted the highest distinction the
Venezuelan Government bestows on an artist, the “Order of
Andrés Bello” in it’s first class. The city
of Paris honoured him with the “Medaille de Vermeil”.
His violin, the Benvenuti,
is a Stradivarius from the Golden Period (1727).
