The son of painter Simon Hantaï, he discovered the music of Johann Sebastian Bach when he was ten and first heard Gustav Leonhardt's recordings when he was eleven. He took up the harpsichord when he was eleven and was self-taught until meeting his first teacher, the American harpsichordist Arthur Haas. He later studied for two years in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt.[1] In 1983 he won the second prize in the Bruges harpsichord competition.
His first recordings focused on the English virginalists (Giles Farnaby and John Bull), and on Bach. Influential solo recordings include two Goldberg Variations, released ten years apart (1993, 2003), and an ongoing series of Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas. Following a first CD for Astrée in 1993, he has recorded six more volumes of Scarlatti recitals for Mirare between 2002 and 2019. Other solo recordings include the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, three recordings dedicated to Bach’s toccatas and suites, as well as recordings of Frescobaldi and Couperin.
Le Concert Français preparing to play under Pierre Hantai in 2009.
In 1985, he founded the ensemble Le Concert Français, which he conducted from the harpsichord and which recorded both orchestral and chamber repertoire.
Pierre Hantaï has never held a permanent teaching post in a conservatory.
During the 1990s, he taught privately. His students, including Bertrand Cuiller and Maude Gratton, continued their studies at the CNSM de Paris with Christophe Rousset and Olivier Baumont. In 2000, Hantaï replaced Rousset, then the harpsichord professor at the CNSM, during his sabbatical year. At the end of the year, Rousset quit and a job search was held as a formality, with the expectation that Hantaï would succeed Rousset and continue to work with his students at the CNSM. In what one student called an unexpected twist that shook the harpsichord class, though, he lost the post to Baumont, who has been the harpsichord professor at the CNSM since 2001.[2][3]
Since then, he has largely limited his teaching activities to master classes (Villa Medici, Fondation Royaumont, Académie de Villecroze, Accademia Europea Villa Bossi, etc.). He tutored the harpsichordist Lillian Gordis between 2009 and 2013.[4]
