Chopin: Fantasia in F minor, Op. 49

The French pianist Samson François (1924–1970) recorded three complete Chopin sequences: the ballades, which brought him his first great success on record, the nocturnes and the polonaises. François learned his Chopin from Alfred Cortot, from whom he inherited a visionary style which suits the polonaises particularly well. (By an irony, Cortot himself played these works relatively rarely and recorded almost none of them.)

It was Chopin that François chose for his first recordings, which he made at the end of the 1940s on the Brunswick label. He recorded the polonaises twice: first in mono in 1958; then the present stereo version, made in the Salle Wagam in 1968 and 1969. There is no fundamental change of conception. If the mono recording benefits from the natural acoustic of the Salle de la Mutualité and at times offers something more rapt, it also affords less bel canto in the right hand too: the effect is more battling than dancing,so to speak.

Above all, these polonaises achieve a dramatic tension that sets them apart from other contemporary versions on disc: neither Rubinstein, supremely elegant as always, nor Stefan Askenaze, who cherishes the dance element, approach these works with such intensity.

The couplings are a handful of late works recorded at the end of sessions devoted to the nocturnes: the Trois Nouvelles Etudes, the Tarentelle, the Fantaisie in F minor and the F sharp Barcarolle share the same overcast outlook, and to that extent are a perfect foil to the often exuberant polonaises.

François played all the Chopin that was published in his day: even the C major Rondo for two pianos of 1828, reworked for four hands from an earlier solo piece, and recorded here with the pianist’s lifelong friend Pierre Barbizet.

All tracks are newly transferred and remastered to ART standard at Abbey Road Studios.

Award: Diapason d’Or

Profil’s Frédéric Chopin series has so far featured the Ballads and Impromptus (Vol. 1), Waltzes (Vol. 2), Polonaises (Vol. 3) and the Etudes (Vol. 4), and now the next in the series continues with a selection of more of his finest works.

His previous volumes have all been well received by the press and Eugene Mursky has proved that he is a first-rate pianist definitely worthy of his international competition success. He was awarded 1st Prize in the prestigious World Piano Competition, 1994, and also the Chopin Prize for the best Chopin interpretation.

“Mursky has shown himself to be an artist of potentially wonderful talent.” The Daily Telegraph

Alessandra Ammara graduated from the "L. Cherubini" Conservatory of Florence and the Accademia Pianistica of Imola. She honed her talents in some of today's most important music schools, like the International Piano Foundation at Lake Como and the School of Music in Fiesole, with great musicians like Maria Tipo, Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher, William Naboré and Fou Ts'ong. She has drawn the attention of the musical world after achieving brilliant results in some of the more important international piano competitions, such as the "G. B. Viotti" in Vercelli, the "J. Iturbi" in Valencia, the "Casagrande" in Terni, the "Van Cliburn" in Fort Worth. In 2000 she was a Laureate of the "Esther Honens" international piano competition in Calgary, Canada. She has collaborated with many great interpreters, including Ingrid Attrot, Rocco Filippini, Alban Gerhardt, Anton Kuerti, Shauna Rolston, the Takacs Quartet, the Sine Nomine Quartet. Since 1999 she regularly plays in piano duo with Roberto Prosseda. Ms. Ammara has recorded a successful CD for the Canadian label "Arktos" with music by Debussy, Scriabin and Chopin. She was chosen to take part in the new complete Chopin edition produced by Brilliant Classics, together with some of the greatest pianists in the world.

Frederick Chopin’s four Ballades are mature works written between 1836 and 1842.after he left his Polish homeland. They represent pure music in its finest form without any suggestive narration, though it is clear that Chopin was inspired by the stories of his native Poland and particularly the poems of Adam Mickiewicz. The Ballades are considered to be some of the finest of Chopin's creations and among the most representative of romantic music. Chopin composed 58 Mazurkas (there seem to be at least another 2 unfinished sketches), and in them you get to know the very heart and soul of his native Poland. Many of his other works of different genres are either inspired by the Mazurka or have parts of Mazurkas within them. Chopin did not invent the mazurka form, however it was he alone who put it on the public stage and refined it into the highest level of music.