Samson François The Unreleased Swiss Recordings 1962 (2 UHQCD)

François' hands flow over his keyboard and over the music. "I would have liked to make 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 are a 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 descendants 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, which were made in various places in Switzerland: they form a program from Schumann, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and List to Chopin, which is entirely dedicated to the world of Romantic music beloved by François. From the very first notes of Schumann's "Papillons", recorded in 1961 at the RTS studios in Geneva, it becomes clear why François's 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 elicits the concentrated essence from the piece and gives us a particularly captivating 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 calibre. Having succumbed to the hypnotic effect of the pianist's sound with its unfathomable subtlety – the finely chiselled accompaniment, the perfect legato, and the supremely elegant rubato over an ideal beat – one can only wonder if there are more captivating interpretations of these miniatures than these.
The elaborately restored recordings come as a high-quality double UHQCD. "The Lost Recordings" is celebrated worldwide for the preservation of priceless musical heritage and the unsurpassed quality of its Phoenix mastering™ restorations. "Samson François – The Unreleased Swiss Recordings" is also an audiophile revelation!
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. UHQCDs, unlike conventional CDs, are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. To protect the softer photopolymer from scratching, another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied. The combination results in a significantly reduced reflection of the laser light inside the CD and an unrivalled precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with normal CD players. Musically, the result is a sound that is strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

Selections:

UHQCD 1
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
1. Papillions, 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 (1811-1886)
5. Sonetto 123 del Petrarch, S.161, No.6
6. Valse-Impromptu, Sp.213
7. Transcendental Étude No.8 "Wild Hunt", Sp.139
8. Transcendental Étude No.7 "Eroica", S.139
UHQCD 2
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Piano Concerto In E-Flat Major, No.1, S.124
1. I. Allegro Maestoso
2. II. Quasi Adagio
3. III. Allegro Vivace
4. IV. Allegro Marziale Animato
Frédéric Chopin (1810 – 1849)
5. Waltz in C-Sharp Minor, Op.64, No.2
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
6. Hungarian Rhapsody In D-Flat Major, S.244, No.6
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
7. Nocturne In G Minor, Op.15, No.3
8. Étude In G-flat Major, Op.10, No.5
9. Étude In C Minor, Op.10, No.12
10. Grande Valse Brillante In E-Flat Major, Op.18