The pianist Magdalene Ho introduces herself to the Zurich audience with works by Liszt, Beethoven and Chopin.
In 2023, the then 19-year-old Malaysian pianist Magdalene Ho won everything there was to win at the Concours Clara Haskil in Vevey: the main prize, the Audience Prize, the Young Critics' Prize and the Childrens Corner Prize. This was followed by a whole series of invitations to recitals and orchestral concerts.
For Clara Haskil, the competition's namesake, Vevey was once not a starting point, but a vanishing point. Born in Bucharest in 1895, she became acquainted with Switzerland at an early age, first during spa visits and later on concert tours. After she had to flee her adopted country of France in 1942 due to her Jewish origins, she found a new home in the small town on Lake Geneva. And she became friends with another famous Veveyite by choice: Charlie Chaplin, who bought a Steinway because of her - so that she could play a good instrument during her visits. It was not far from Vevey to the Tonhalle Zurich. Between 1945 and the year of her death in 1960, Clara Haskil performed works by Beethoven, Chopin and her favourite composer Mozart in ten orchestral concerts and recitals. The first two names (alongside Liszt) are now also on Magdalene Ho's programme.
