Frederic Chopin(1810-1849)
       Preludes, Opus 28

Samson Francois
EMI 74457(10-cd box set)
Recorded 1959

Samson Francois is one of the legends as a Chopin performing artist.
Born in 1924, Francois died prematurely at the age of 46 in 1970.  His
best performances seem to come from the 1950's; as the 1960's evolved,
Francois suffered from an increasingly severe emotional instability which
affected his musical efforts.

The 10-cd set from EMI does not have every single Chopin piano piece,
but it does have the bulk of Chopin's repertoire: the two piano concertos,
the last two piano sonatas, fourteen waltzes, the four ballades, the
four scherzos,fifty-one mazurkas, nineteen nocturnes, ten polonaises,
all the etudes, the four impromptus, the opus 28 preludes, and a few
other solo pieces.  The cost of the set is in the Naxos price range and
represents a wonderful bargain offering one of the great Chopin interpreters
of the 20th century.

At this point, I suppose that I would rave about the Francois version
of Chopin's Preludes and point out all his wealth of stunning pianism
and living in the core of Chopin's psychology.  It certainly is true
that Francois plays a couple of the preludes better than anyone else,
often displays an uncommon ability to coordinate and differentiate
among the voices, and sparkles with the best on record.

Unfortunately, there is a consistent lacking in the following qualities:
dashed hopes, despair, tremendous energy, power, austerity, and fire.
Further, two of the preludes simply are not rewarding in the least.
When I add it all up, the Francois performances offer a great deal of
illumination and enjoyment but do not reach the levels of the best
recorded versions.

Here are the highlights of my traveral of the Francois readings:

He starts off in great fashion with the 1st Prelude in C major.  The
detail is amazing, and Francois is always stretching for higher ground.
The 2nd Prelude in A minor is not as enjoyable; this music needs to
convey total despair, and Francois isn't quite there as his bass-line
is not very effective and the melody line not sufficiently poignant.
With that in mind, I immediately went to the 4th and 6th Preludes which
are also quite bleak.  As I expected, Francois continued to hold back
from the depths of despair.

The 5th Prelude in D major can be a fine barometer of how the pianist
will treat music which deals from fire and excitement.  Francois again
holds back a little; the performance is excellently detailed but doesn't
come close to revving up one's emotions.  The fire of the 8th Prelude
easily surpasses the 5th, and Francois continues to be low on octane.
At the same time, his very slow performance has fantastic descending
figures which I never paid much attention to before now.  Still, I miss
the tremendous energy I get from Argerich and Malikova.

The 7th Prelude sparkles in great comfort for Francois.  Actually,
it's the sparkling music throughout the set which Francois consistently
performs in an exceptional manner.  This applies to the 11th, 19th, and
23rd Preludes.  Francois also has no problem conveying the beauty of
Chopin's music.  Just listen to the 13th and 21st Preludes which are
gorgeous masterpieces in his hands.

Let's get back to the serious pieces.  In the 12th Prelude in G sharp
minor, Francois only intermittently turns on the steam; however, he does
offer a highly nuanced and heart-felt conclusion quite different from
any other.  In the second section of the 15th Prelude, Francois sounds
perfunctory and rather wooden; the music has the potential to make the
listener's hair stand up on end, and Francois is frankly on the boring
side.  This very disappointing performance, combined with one other,
is the basic reason I can't place Francois at the top level.  The 'one
other' is the 20th Prelude which is the worst I've heard to date.  Once
the music starts taking its inevitable descent, the pianist needs to
consistently soften the tone and eventually become hushed.  For whatever
reason, Francois insufficiently softens and displays minimal nuance;
he's simply too loud.

There is one prelude where Francois conveys great tension along with
his outstanding detail - the 14th Prelude in E flat minor.  I've not
heard such stunning coordination and differentiation among the voices;
it's the best performance of the set along with the C major.  Why he is
so full of fire in the E flat minor, but not elsewhere in the set, is
something I can't understand.  It certainly reaches a point where I can
imagine how magnificent these performances could have been, but 'could'
doesn't count for anything.

Don's Conclusions: I hate to leave the Francois version of Chopin's
Preludes out of the ring of top recordings.  He's no ordinary Chopin
performing artist, and there is much in the set to admire and love.
Ultimately, a lack of consistent excellence holds back this fine version
which is one of the best not in the top category.  Although the sound
posesses a consistent static, it never invades the notes.  So, sound
quality shouldn't be an issue.

By all means, invest in these performances and the entire box set.  Just
don't assume that this version of the Preludes conveys all the best of
Chopin; it's a great supplemental interpretation, but definitely not for
those who only want one recording in their library.  Among the recordings
I have placed in the essential category, the Freire/Bolet/Argerich
performances would be the ones for solo status.

Don Satz
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