NICOLE HENRIOT-SCHWEITZER
French pianist (1925-2001)

Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer studied under Marguerite Long at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, being awarded her first prize in piano in 1938. The following year, in 1939, she won third prize in the Gabriel Fauré competition in Luxembourg. Ginette Doyen was the second prize winner and Georges Farago, about whom I know nothing, took first prize.

Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer began her concert career after WWII. In 1958 she married an admiral of the French Navy, himself a nephew of the renowned Albert Schweitzer, and on his mother's side of the great conductor Charles Munch with whom she performed often. From 1970 she taught at the conservatories of Brussels and Liège in Belgium.

Both of the following recording are with the Boston Symphony conducted by Charles Munch. They are superb performances and it is a rare treat in particular to hear every note of the Prokofien concerto in perfect clarity resulting from the exquisite playing of Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer and the legendary RCA recording engineers whose shaded label issues in the early 1960s are among the finest recordings ever made. I regret that these are the only recordings of this marvelous pianist I have to share.

d'Indy  Symphony on a French Mountain Air
Charles Munch conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra

i Assez lent - Modérément animé
10:54  ii Assez modéré, mais sans lenteur
17:44  iii Animé

recorded in 1958