Samson François
He travelled across the world of music like a meteor, a shooting star. Excessive in all things, he burned his candle at both ends. The cigarette forever on his lips was a symbol of the fire that burned within this man who had a passion for jazz and the shadowy world of the night. Born in 1924 in Frankfurt, to a French father and a glamorous Alsatian mother, he spent his childhood and adolescence being taken from town to town, this artistic soul was profoundly sensitive, a romantic with a fanciful streak, often unpredictable. An admirer of Arthur Rimbaud and André Breton, he shared a little of their fire. Samson François was a real performer: one for whom the phrase "inspiration" was more than a cliché. Whether in poetic mood or in a frenzy, he never left his listeners indifferent. He could even throw them off balance at concerts where nothing special happened: that is what a real creator can do, and François was one. Hemmed in within the limits of his keyboard, he had the imaginative range to be a composer, and he wrote the music for a film a Piano Concerto (which he also recorded), pieces for the piano and... lots of aborted projects. His favourite repertoire? Ravel, Debussy, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt and Prokofiev, a choice which allowed him to express the extremes of his unstable and fascinating spirit.
This student of Marguerite Long never taught, but he has left us a discographic legacy of immense importance, from which has emerged a compilation dedicated to Chopin, his complete performances of Ravel, and one of the great renditions of reference of two concertos from the French composer: a Concerto en sol stamped with a classic luminosity and a Concerto for the left hand marked with an implacable and tormented drama. Samson François loved to make records, and the close, stuffy atmosphere of the recording studio couldn't put him off. From 1947 to his sudden and premature death in 1970 (which prevented him from finishing his complete piano works of Claude Debussy), he recorded the lion's share of his repertoire with great care, confiding in the microphone with all the intimacy that he would bring to a live audience. "You come to put down concretely the conception that you might have of a work", he said, "and as you have the good fortune of being able to start over again, it's possible to wind up with something that satisfies you. "
His name will always be linked to that of Frédéric Chopin, a composer who began by resisting him, and of whom he became one of the greatest interpreters. He probably found in the Franco-Polish composer's music a range of changing humours which corresponded perfectly to his own nature, with this mixture of seriousness, frivolity, melancholy, of sentiments expressed with elegance, subtlety, and that bel canto for which he had such skill. Time has done its work, and if the exceptional popularity of this extraordinary pianist is forgotten, today we can at least savour all the magic that his unquiet mind brought to his art.
© FH / Qobuz
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Bach: Pièces pour piano (Transcr. Busoni & Liszt)
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 16/10/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Récital à la Salle Pleyel (Live, 20.I.1964)
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 23/10/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin Les Valses
Clásica - Editado por Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group el 2/02/2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words & Rondo capriccioso - Mozart: Variations on "Ah ! vous dirai-je, maman"
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 9/10/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Samson François Plays Chopin
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 29/02/2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Children's Corner, Estampes & Suite bergamasque
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 19/06/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Sonate No. 2 "Marche funèbre", Nocturne No. 15 & Grande Polonaise brillante
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 1/12/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Franck: Prélude, choral & fugue - Fauré: Nocturnes Nos. 2 & 4
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 25/09/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Sonates pour piano Nos. 8 "Pathétique", 14 "Clair de lune" & 23 "Appassionata"
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 9/10/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Concertos pour piano
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 19/06/2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit, Le Tombeau de Couperin by Samson François (Remastered 2022, Version 1958)
Clásica - Editado por Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording el 27/07/2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Masterpieces for Piano Left Hand [Ravel, Scriabin, Prokofiev...]
Samson François, Andrei Gavrilov, Rudolf Serkin, Gabor Gabos, Julius Katchen
Clásica - Editado por Praga Digitals el 1/09/2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Enregistrements de 1960
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 1/12/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1, Nocturne No. 6 & Impromptu No. 2
Samson François, Quatuor Bernede
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 14/08/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Unique récital Chopin
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 9/10/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frederic Chopin : 14 Waltzes (2011 - Remaster) (2011 Remastered Version)
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 16/03/2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Les deux concertos pour piano, Op. 11 & 21
Louis Frémaux, Orchestre National de l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Samson François
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 27/11/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Piano Sonatas Nos 2 "Funeral March" & 3
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 20/03/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Quatre scherzos & Sonate No. 2 "Marche funèbre"
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 12/02/2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Piano Recital 1960
Clásica - Editado por SWR Classic el 8/03/2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Les 14 Valses
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 1/01/1958
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo