François Gresle

L'influence de Francois Couperin sur ses contemporains et ses successeurs de l'école francaise de clavecin voire même à travers l'europe, tel est le programme éminement didactique de Davitt Moroney dans son pur style des années 1990, celui des émissions qu'il animait sur France Musiques.

oyal baroque from festive to virtuoso: the most popular by Vivaldi, Handel and colleagues When baroque festive trumpets unfolded their splendor, everyone listened: the sound of brass instruments was a sounding sign for princes and kings and their lavish splendor. Centuries later, hardly anyone can escape the effects of Baroque music: Vivaldi, Handel and Bach are still classic chart strikers par excellence. The Königliches Barock album combines everything that makes this music so fascinating: festive splendor as in Handel's fireworks music, Telemann's trumpet concerto or Charpentiers Te Deum, sacred depth as in Corelli's Christmas concert, Albinoni's Adagio or Pachelbel's canon.

This release, part of harmonia mundi's series celebrating the Beethoven year, pairs the composer's iconic and much-loved Symphony No.5 with the far less well-known Symphony In 17 Parts by Francois-Joseph Gossec. The dramatic power and intensity of Beethoven stands in sharp contrast to to the cheerful and gallant music of Gossec. Les Siècles, led by François-Xavier Roth, apply their usual virtuosity and keen insight to both works in performances that are sure to delight.

‘Samson de la nuit’ was the affectionate epithet given to this pianist who seemed never to sleep and who was almost as famous for spending his early morning hours in Parisian jazz clubs as he was for playing Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. Like the Biblical Samson, Samson François wore his hair long – it often hung in front of his eyes as he played – and like the character Scarbo in Gaspard, he could be mischievous and evasive. A man of contrasts, he was in many ways the epitome of what one thought a romantic pianist should be – confident, dashing, poetic, moody, passionate, tender and temperamental. Today, more than 40 years after his premature death, a new generation of listeners has come to appreciate the qualities that made him one of the great pianists of the 20th century.