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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Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major etc.
Samson François, Robert Casadesus, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire
Clásica - Editado por Past Classics el 12 jun. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy Integrale Inachevée
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 2 oct. 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Polonaises
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 1 ene. 1959
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Récital Frédéric Chopin
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 12 sept. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy Children Suites
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 28 may. 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Élégies, Sz. 41 - Hindemith: Les quatre tempéraments
Samson François, Louis Auriacombe, Orchestre De Chambre De Toulouse
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 23 oct. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin Valser
Clásica - Editado por Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group el 2 feb. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Récital Debussy (Mono Version)
Varios - Editado por BNF Collection el 1 ene. 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Samson François Plays Chopin, Schumann & Liszt
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 23 feb. 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Franck: Prélude, choral et fugue - Fauré: Impromptu No. 2, Nocturnes Nos. 2 & 4 (Mono Version)
Varios - Editado por BNF Collection el 1 ene. 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 - Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 11
Samson François, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, Georges Tzipine
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 16 oct. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Les Deux Concertos Pour Piano
Samson François, André Cluytens, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire
Clásica - Editado por Classically el 13 sept. 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: 12 Études, Op. 25 (Mono Version)
Varios - Editado por BNF Collection el 1 ene. 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: 51 Mazurkas (Mono Version)
Varios - Editado por BNF Collection el 1 ene. 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Études, Op. 10 (Mono Version)
Clásica - Editado por BNF Collection el 1 ene. 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Romances sans paroles - Mozart: 12 Variations sur "Ah, vous dirai-je maman" (Mono Version)
Clásica - Editado por BNF Collection el 1 ene. 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ballade pour un voyou (Musique originale du film)
Bandas sonoras de cine - Editado por Warner Classics el 1 ene. 1963
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Waltz & Etude Collection
Clásica - Editado por OMP Classics el 28 abr. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Rhapsodie hongroise No. 2 (Mono Version)
Clásica - Editado por BNF Collection el 1 ene. 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Scriabin: Sonate pour piano No. 3 - Prokofiev: Sonate pour piano No. 7 (Stereo Version)
Clásica - Editado por BNF Collection el 1 ene. 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev & R. Schumann: Piano Concertos (Live)
Samson François, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National De Paris, Karel Ancerl, Carlo Maria Giulini
Clásica - Editado por Archipel el 27 mar. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo