When in 1970 Werner Haas won the Amsterdam Edison Prize for his grammaphone recordings of the complete works of Maurice Ravel not much notice was taken of this. However, in France he was always admired by the concert audiences as well as the Paris Theatre des Champs Elysées, the local radio stations and producers of grammophone records, thus bestowing this modest artist with fame. After his concert at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, critics wrote about the rapturous applause which up to then had rarely been bestowed on a foreigner in this famous concert hall full of tradtion. Long columns were written in the local newspapers about this young german artist stating unanimously that Walter Gieseke had finally found a worthy successor - his pupil Werner Haaas.