This is the second release in an important new APR series devoted to the French Piano School. For around 150 years France has nurtured a distinctive style of pianism centred on the teaching of the Paris Conservatoire. The heyday of the school was probably the first fifty years of the 20th century and this series of recordings aims to explore in depth the often-forgotten recordings made at this time. Victor Staub (1872-1953) and Lazare-Lévy (1882-1964) were both students of Louis Diémer at the Paris Conservatoire in the latter part of the 19th century and both were to follow in his footsteps as great teachers in that institution and elsewhere. Indeed, their list of pupils reads as a roll call of 20th-century French pianists. However, they were also extremely fine pianists and this set presents, for the first time, their complete studio recordings. The Staub titles are almost forgotten and none have ever been reissued before. Also all but unknown is the 7” Crown LP Lazare-Lévy recorded on the ‘Siena pianoforte’ in Israel in 1951. As one would expect, clarity, brilliance and refinement are much to the fore in these exemplars of the French School.

Tracklisting:

CD 1
Victor Staub (Odéon recordings 1927-1929):
1. Daquin - Le coucou
2. Mendelssohn - Song without words, op.67/4
3. Chopin - Waltz in F major, op.34/3
4. Chopin - Waltz in G flat major, op.70/1
5. Schumann - Fantasiestücke, op.12/1, 2 & 4
8. Schumann/Liszt - Frühlingsnacht, S568
9. Moszkowski - Valse d’amour (Liebeswalzer), op.57/5
10. Sinding - Rustle of Spring
11. Debussy - Golliwogg’s Cake-Walk
12. Debussy - Minstrels
13. Ravel - Rigaudon
14. Rhené-Baton - Fileuses près Carantec
16. Mozart - Fantasia in C minor, K475
17. Chabrier - Sous-bois
18. Chabrier - Idylle
19. Debussy - Masques
20. Dukas - La plainte, au loin, du faune
21. Roussel - Sicilienne
22. Lazare-Lévy - Préludes 1, 2 & 5 from Vingt préludes
(Japanese Victor recording 1950):
25. Lazare-Lévy - Valses

CD 2
1. F Couperin - Les Lis naissans
2. F Couperin - Les rozeaux
3. Schubert - Impromptu in A flat major, op142/2
4. Schumann - Des Abends
5. Schumann - Traumes Wirren
6. Chopin - Mazurka in C sharp minor, op.6/2
7. Chopin - Mazurka in A flat major op.50/2
(Crown recordings 1951):
8. F Couperin - Les rozeaux
9. Daquin - Le coucou
10. Debussy - La cathédrale engloutie
(Ducretet Thomson recordings 1952):
11. Mozart - Piano Sonata no.10 in C major, K330
14. Mozart - Piano Sonata no.11 in A major ‘Alla Turca’, K331
(Pathé recording 1955):
17. Mozart - Piano Sonata no.8 in A minor, K310