Samson François – The Unreleased Swiss Recordings (UHQCD dublu)

François’ hands flow over his piano and over the music. “I would have liked to have made a pact with the devil, but he didn’t want me,” he is quoted as saying in a 2020 article in Diapason magazine. François was excessive, unpredictable, a charmer, vulnerable – in short, he was magnetic, a quality revealed by the discovery of these recordings, which pay tribute to one of the greatest pianistic poets of the 20th century. “The Lost Recordings” makes these outstanding recordings available to us for the first time as a double UltraHighQualityCD.

Samson François belongs to the lineage of Sofronitzky, Horowitz and Cortot. In fact, the legendary Cortot said of him: “I can only make him play by conjuring up images”. “The Lost Recordings” found such fascinatingly colorful images in each of these previously unreleased recordings, made in various locations in Switzerland: they form a program of Schumann, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Liszt and Chopin, dedicated entirely to the world of romantic music that François loves. From the very first notes of Schumann’s Papillons, recorded at the RTS studios in Geneva in 1961, it is clear why François’ fluid interpretation creates a synthesis between two musical theories: that of Jean-Philippe Rameau, who saw only rhythm and order in music, and that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for whom music was the purest expression of feelings. François draws out the concentrated essence of the piece and gives us a particularly compelling interpretation of the young 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 of the same caliber. After succumbing to the hypnotic effect of the pianist’s sound, with its unfathomable subtlety – the delicately chiseled accompaniment, the perfect legato and the extremely elegant rubato over an ideal beat – one can only wonder if there are more compelling interpretations of these miniatures than this one.

The painstakingly restored recordings come as a high-quality double UHQCD. “The Lost Recordings” is celebrated worldwide for preserving invaluable musical heritage and for the unsurpassed quality of its Phoenix-Mastering™ restorations. “Samson François – The Unreleased Swiss Recordings” is an audiophile revelation too that proves how outstanding mono recordings can sound!

UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

Lista pieselor

CD 1

Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856)

1.    Papillons, Op. 2

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 – 1847)

2.    Songs Without Words In B Minor, Op. 67, No. 5

3.    Songs Without Words In A Major, Op. 62, No. 6

Alexander Alabyev (1787 – 1851) / Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886)

4.    The Nightingale, S. 250*

Franz Liszt

5.    Sonetto 123 del Petrarca, S. 161, No. 6

6.    Valse-Impromptu, S. 213

7.    Transcendental Étude No. 8 „Wilde Jagd”, S. 139*

8.    Transcendental Étude No. 7 „Eroica”, S. 139*

CD 2

Franz Liszt

9.    Piano Concerto In E-Flat Major, No. 1, S. 124**

I.    Allegro Maestoso

II.    Quasi Adagio

III.    Allegro Vivace

IV.    Allegro Marziale Animato

Frédéric Chopin (1810 – 1849)

10.     Waltz in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2***

Franz Liszt

11.     Hungarian Rhapsody In D-Flat Major, S. 244, No. 6

Frédéric Chopin

12.     Nocturne In G Minor, Op. 15, No. 3*

13.     Étude In G-flat Major, Op. 10, No. 5*

14.     Étude In C Minor, Op. 10, No. 12*

15.     Grande Valse Brillante In E-Flat Major, Op. 18*

Format	UHQCD dublu
Casă de discuri	The Lost Recordings
Gen muzical	Muzică clasică