Classical, Piano

Samson François He travelled across the world of music like a meteor, a shooting star. Excessive in all things, he burned his candle at both ends. The cigarette forever on his lips was a symbol of the fire that burned within this man who had a passion for jazz and the shadowy world of the night. Born in 1924 in Frankfurt, to a French father and a glamorous Alsatian mother, he spent his childhood and adolescence being taken from town to town, this artistic soul was profoundly sensitive, a romantic with a fanciful streak, often unpredictable. An admirer of Arthur Rimbaud and André Breton, he shared a little of their fire. Samson François was a real performer: one for whom the phrase "inspiration" was more than a cliché. Whether in poetic mood or in a frenzy, he never left his listeners indifferent. He could even throw them off balance at concerts where nothing special happened: that is what a real creator can do, and François was one. Hemmed in within the limits of his keyboard, he had the imaginative range to be a composer, and he wrote the music for a film a Piano Concerto (which he also recorded), pieces for the piano and… lots of aborted projects. His favourite repertoire? Ravel, Debussy, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt and Prokofiev, a choice which allowed him to express the extremes of his unstable and fascinating spirit.

Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group Presents Russian Classical Piano contains the defining tracks of the decade and features some of the biggest hits from artists.

This album includes over three hours of piano pieces performed by some of the finest pianists Misha Fomin, Katya Kramer-Lapin, Konstantin Soukhovetski, Mikhail Mordvinov, Vyacheslav Gryaznov, Maria Nemtsova and Pavel Dombrovsky.
The collection contains the most beautiful compositions of Mozart, Chopin, Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Scriabin, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Satie, Nazaykinskaya and Bryukhno.

Irene Cantos is currently a member of the Novus Promusica team, a record label headed by the composer and music producer Manuel Ruiz del Corral, with whom she has developed both composition and production skills. Under this label she has recorded two albums, 'Jeux' and 'Reflets'. One of the facets that characterizes her is her commitment to contemporary music; in her discography there is absolutely inspiring music by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Manuel Ruiz del Corral, Miguel Bustamante, Ana Silva, José Buenagu and Brian Field.

She is currently a member of the Novus Promusica team, a record label headed by the composer and music producer Manuel Ruiz del Corral, with whom she has developed both composition and production skills. Under this label she has recorded two albums, 'Jeux' and 'Reflets'. One of the facets that characterizes her is her commitment to contemporary music; in her discography there is absolutely inspiring music by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Manuel Ruiz del Corral, Miguel Bustamante, Ana Silva, José Buenagu and Brian Field.As a composer, she has explored various genres of film music and has composed and produced the music for the promotional video for the new building of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Malaga created by the architect Eduardo Pérez Gómez. She is currently immersed in the composition of a commission for Lynn University (Florida).

She is currently a member of the Novus Promusica team, a record label headed by the composer and music producer Manuel Ruiz del Corral, with whom she has developed both composition and production skills. Under this label she has recorded two albums, 'Jeux' and 'Reflets'. One of the facets that characterizes her is her commitment to contemporary music; in her discography there is absolutely inspiring music by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Manuel Ruiz del Corral, Miguel Bustamante, Ana Silva, José Buenagu and Brian Field.As a composer, she has explored various genres of film music and has composed and produced the music for the promotional video for the new building of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Malaga created by the architect Eduardo Pérez Gómez. She is currently immersed in the composition of a commission for Lynn University (Florida).

She is currently a member of the Novus Promusica team, a record label headed by the composer and music producer Manuel Ruiz del Corral, with whom she has developed both composition and production skills. Under this label she has recorded two albums, 'Jeux' and 'Reflets'. One of the facets that characterizes her is her commitment to contemporary music; in her discography there is absolutely inspiring music by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Manuel Ruiz del Corral, Miguel Bustamante, Ana Silva, José Buenagu and Brian Field.

Considered the most important Brazilian composer next to Villa-Lobos, Camargo Guarnieri and his impact on the musical life of his country is inestimable, with a body of piano music that represents the composer’s most distinctive stylistic features. Guarnieri was a consummate improviser and many of his piano works reflect a sense of ease and intimacy, giving the impression that they were composed in a flash of instantaneous inspiration. This is particularly true of the ‘character pieces’ in this volume, from the autobiographical Improvisos and Momentos, to the intimate nostalgia of the Valsas.

In the 1970s and 1980s, when the listener was starved of the unusual and was happy to listen to anything off the beaten track, some of these pieces sounded more exciting than they do now. I can remember enjoying a couple of the pieces more then than now. This is partly due to Hyperion’s wonderful Romantic Piano Concerto series, which has taken us yet further off the beaten track. It should be noted that some of the works presented here by Brilliant Classics do not feature in the Hyperion series and this makes this set all the more valuable.