Michel Bernstein

Michel Bernstein (Paris, 1931 – Paris, October 31, 2006) was a French musical producer and founder of several record labels.

Bernstein's first contact with classical music was hearing the school music teacher play Beethoven on an out-of-tune piano at the age of 15, but thereafter he took a lively interest in music and recordings.

Bernstein founded his first record label, Vendôme, in 1954, which released only 5 LPs.

The first release was the world premiere recording of Debussy's Proses Lyriques, by Flore Wend a Swiss soprano living in Paris, accompanied by the pianist Odette Gartenlaub, engineered by André Charlin, and recorded at the Salle Adyar, Paris. The LP also included the Chansons de Bilitis and Ballades de François Villon, and received glowing reviews in the French magazine Disques. The next release was of the organist Pierre Cochereau playing Bach on the organ of the Église Saint-Roch. Followed by another disc of Bach, the Orgelbüchlein, with the Danish organist Finn Viderø.

His second label, Valois, recorded Sándor Végh and his Végh Quartet, and discs of Clément Janequin and Amours de Ronsard with the Ensemble Polyphonique de Paris of the composer Charles Ravier. Ravier returned to Bernstein in the 1970s to make two recordings of the Meslanges of Lassus, the second of them deeply problematic.

The Paris-based American pianist Noël Lee made many recordings for Valois; Aaron Copland, Ravel, Chopin, and the Brahms quintet with the Quatuor Danois. Then from 1965, chanson and lieder recordings of Ravel, Duparc, Robert Schumann, Mussorgsky, etc. with the Dutch baritone Bernard Kruysen, as well as participating in recordings of Jean Barraqué.

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