SAMSON FRANÇOIS ∙ The Salle Pleyel Recital in 1965
SCHUMANN: Études Symphoniques, Op 13
CHOPIN: Mazurka in D-flat Major, Op 33, No 3
CHOPIN: Mazurka in F Minor, Op 63, No 2
CHOPIN: Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major, Op 47
LISZT: Piano Sonata in B Minor, HS 178
LISZT: Réminiscences de Don Juan, HS 418
CHOPIN: Étude No. 9 in G-flat Major, Op 25
Recorded ∙ 19 January 1965 ∙ Paris ∙ Salle Pleyel ∙ ORTF ∙ Live Recording
Article number: MC 1045
UPC barcode: 791154054482
Release date: 16 July 2019
Booklet: 8 Pages
Total timing: 79:18
From the Original Masters ∙ © 2019 Meloclassic
December 2019 ∙ British Gramophone ∙ Rob Cowan ∙ Samson François ∙ The Salle Pleyel Recital in 1965
The latest trawl of radio recordings from Melo Classic is typically eclectic and revelatory. Among the featured pianists is Samson François (MC1045), who never recorded Liszt’s Sonata commercially, but whose highly flammable, grandly rhapsodising 1965 account recorded in recital as part of a mostly Liszt–Chopin programme will make you wonder again about the design of Romanticism’s greatest piano work.
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December 2019 ∙ MusicWeb International ∙ Samson François ∙ The Salle Pleyel Recital in 1965
The highlight of this recital for me is the Liszt Sonata. The reading in bold, courageous, passionate and intense, yet bejewelled with poetic lustre. The recital, a live recording from the Salle Pleyel, is dated 19 January 1965. The audio quality is first-rate, with air and resonance around the piano. It makes for a pleasing listen.
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February 2020 ∙ French Diapason ∙ Bertrand Boissard ∙ Samson François ∙ The Salle Pleyel Recital in 1965
Il ne faut jamais se réjouir trop vite. Enfin une Sonate de Liszt par Samson François ? Mais ce 19 janvier 1965, Salle Pleyel, les embardées et sorties de route sont trop nombreuses pour en apprécier les fulgurances. Restent, heureusement, des Réminiscences de Don Juan (Liszt) et des Etudes symphoniques (Schumann) portées par un vrai souffle.
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February 2020 ∙ French Classica ∙ Jean-Charles Hoffelé ∙ Samson François ∙ The Salle Pleyel Recital in 1965
Celui de Samson François l’est moins : les Études symphoniques le voient justement prudent, les doigts butent, le chant peine, la Sonate de Liszt sonne morne et le combat entre le pianiste et son clavier plus d’une fois incertain. Deux Mazurkas de Chopin comme improvisées, une Ballade 1103 où enfin ce piano chante et des Réminiscences de « Don Juan » de Liszt, surtout où il se venge de
ses incertitudes dans la Sonate, remboursent en partie.
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March 2020 ∙ International Piano Magazine ∙ Bryce Morrison ∙ Samson François ∙ The Salle Pleyel Recital in 1965
Samson François’s Salle Pleyel Recital in 1965: His Schumann Études Symphoniques are oddly heavy and Teutonic while his Liszt Sonata, with its rhetoric gasps, becomes virtually surreal. You may argue over the greatest Liszt Sonata on record, but you can’t argue over the strangest. In the Don Juan fantasy, François takes you to the very edge – over the edge in the coda – but with responses as vivid and tempestuous as you could wish. No point in comparisons: François was always François in whatever guise he appeared. This issue is a reminder of the contradictions of musical genius.
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