The French Piano School: The Complete Studio Recordings

Featuring

Victor Staub
Lazare Lévy
Louis-Claude Daquin
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Frédéric Chopin
Robert Schumann

Franz Liszt
Moritz Moszkowski
Christian Sinding
Claude Debussy
Maurice Ravel
Emmanuel Rhené-Baton
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Emmanuel Chabrier
Paul Dukas
Albert Roussel
François Couperin
Franz Schubert

Did you know?

1/7

Recording & Production

This album is part of a series aiming to provide an in-depth audio picture of pianists from the French Piano School at its peak in the early 20th century, whose recordings have been neglected in the CD era.

Performer Biography

Victor Staub is the only French pianist to have played under the baton of Gustav Mahler, performing a concerto by Antoine Simon in Moscow in 1897.

Performer Biography

Lazare-Lévy, born in Brussels, was discovered by a British pianist, Miss E. H. Ellis, who was the tutor to Henryk Wieniawski's youngest daughter.

Performer Biography

Victor Staub, born in Lima, Peru, was the direct descendant of a family of prosperous coopers and piano-makers in German-speaking Switzerland, with his great-uncle Johannes-Joseph Staub being an innovator in piano design.

Performer Biography

Victor Staub and Lazare-Lévy, the pianists on this album, both taught senior classes at the Conservatoire national de musique et de déclamation and co-authored the only piano manual left by their teacher, Louis Diémer.

Historical Context

The French piano style, characterized by 'le jeu perlé' (fast, clean, brilliant finger work) and a transparent sound, was nurtured at the Paris Conservatoire for about 150 years.

Performer Biography

Lazare-Lévy was dismissed from the Conservatoire in 1940 due to Vichy government legislation against Jewish people, and his apartment was subsequently pillaged and burned.