15 MICHEL PORTAL ∙ MICHEL DALBERTO How did you meet? Michel Dalberto: Our friendship began with the recording of Brahms’s Trio for clarinet, cello and piano op.114 in 1977. I was still a student at the Paris Conservatoire and had won the Clara Haskil International Competition. Jean Hubeau, my chamber music teacher, mentioned me to Michel Garcin, the great A&R director of Erato. He gave me ‘carte blanche’ for my first recording, and I chose not a solo recital, but two Brahms trios. I asked Michel Portal, whom I didn’t know, if he would like to take part in the recording. He immediately agreed, on condition that Frédéric Lodéon joined us. For his part, Lodéon had expressed a desire to work with Michel Portal! So we ‘co-opted’ each other! The record was an unexpected success and I see that it’s reissued regularly. Michel and I continued to meet over the years, at concerts we gave. The recording we are talking about today is the culmination of over forty years of friendship.
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