SAMSON FRANÇOIS
SAMSON FRANÇOIS - THE UNRELEASED SWISS RECORDINGS - TELECHARGEMENT HD
TELECHARGEMENT HD
SAMSON FRANÇOIS
THE UNRELEASED SWISS RECORDINGS
18,00€14,00€
RECORD 1
- Schumann: Papillons, Op. 2
- Mendelssohn: Songs without Words in B Minor, Op. 67, No. 5
- Mendelssohn: Songs without Words in A Major, Op. 62, No. 6
- Alabyev/Liszt: The Nightingale, S. 250*
- Liszt: Sonetto 123 del Petrarca, S. 161, No. 6
- Liszt: Valse-Impromptu, S.213
- Liszt: Transcendental Étude No. 8 "Wilde Jagd", S. 139*
- Liszt: Transcendental Étude No. 7 "Eroica", S. 139*
RECORD 2
- Liszt: Piano Concerto in E-flat Major, No. 1, S. 124**
- Allegro maestoso
- Quasi Adagio
- Allegretto Vivace
- Allegro marziale animato
- Chopin: Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op. 64, No. 2***
- Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody in D-flat Major, S. 244, No. 6
- Chopin: Nocturne in G Minor, Op. 15, No. 3*
- Chopin: Étude in G-flat Major, Op. 10, No. 5*
- Chopin: Étude in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 12*
- Chopin: Grande valse brillante in E-flat Major, Op. 18*
Magnetic Samson François
François is in the lineage of Sofronitzky, Horowitz and Cortot. In fact, Cortot said of him, “I can only get him to play by evoking images.” We find such fascinatingly colourful images in each of these previously unpublished recordings made in various places in Switzerland; they make up a programme entirely devoted to François’s beloved world, that of romantic music.
No sooner do we hear the first notes of Schumann’s Papillons, recorded in the RTS studios in Geneva in 1961, than we understand why François’s flowing interpretation achieves a synthesis between two theories of music: that of Jean-Philippe Rameau, who saw in music only rhythm and order, and that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for whom music was the purest expression of feeling. François draws out the concentrated essences of the piece, giving us a particularly mesmerising interpretation of the youthful Schumann’s work inspired by a masked ball.
The next pieces, Mendelssohn’s two Songs without Words, were recorded at the same time and are made of the same stuff. After succumbing to the hypnotic effect of the pianist’s sound with its unfathomable subtlety – the delicately chiselled accompanying delivery, perfect legato and superbly elegant rubato over an ideal beat – one can only wonder if there are any more spellbinding renderings of these miniatures than these.
François’s hands flow over his keyboard and over the music. “I should have liked to make a pact with the devil, but he wouldn’t have me,” he is quoted as saying, according to an article in Diapason magazine published in 2020. François was excessive, unpredictable, a charmer, vulnerable – in a nutshell, he was magnetic, a quality revealed by the discovery of these recordings that are a tribute to one of the greatest pianistic poets of the twentieth century.
Samson François, Piano
**Edmond Appia, Conductor
**Orchestra of French-speaking Switzerland
Recorded on 31.I.1961 at the RTS Studio, Geneva
* Recorded on the ?.?.1949 at the RTS Studio, Geneva
** Recorded on 28.III.1962, unknown place
*** Date and place unknown
Ref: TLR-2403052
Photo: 1959 © ClaudePoirier/Roger-Viollet
MONO ℗ 1949, 1961, 1962 RTS
Remastered by ℗ & © 2024 THE LOST RECORDINGS from the original analog tapes
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“I would have liked to make a pact with the devil, but he didn’t want me”
OUR HAPPY MUSIC LOVERS
