For their very first recording with harmonia mundi, the duo formed by Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy offers us three closely related works: Schubert's celebrated Fantasy, his Divertissement à la hongroise, full of contrasts between bursts of energy and enigmatic mists, and Leonid Desyatnikov's Trompe-l'œil, written specifically 'to echo' the Fantasy. This porgram is an intriguing hall of mirrors.
Limited box containing 54 CDs plus DVD. Samson Francois was a true poet of the piano. A brilliant, inspired pianist especially identified with the music of Chopin, Debussy and Ravel, he played with both the proverbial clarity of the French school and a visceral immediacy and spontaneity. Charismatic, sometimes provocative, and numbering jazz among his passions, he achieved celebrity status - notably in France and Japan. The works of Chopin are prominent in this collection - melodic contours were always a priority for Francois - but the complete list of composers is richly diverse. Three major new bonuses are the long-awaited world premiere release of Francois' penultimate live recital, recorded at the Nohant Festival in France in June 1970, just four months before his death at the age of 46; a recital recorded in Tokyo in 1969, and a DVD documentary, written by his son, Maximilien Francois. This new edition places all recordings in the context of their original couplings and the CD wallets carry the original artwork.
