When it came to complete recordings of the solo piano works of
Chopin in the middle years of the 20th century, there was a time
Samson François represented the French school and
Artur Rubinstein represented the Polish school, and then there was everybody else. But
François' was the only truly complete set, since he recorded all the published and some of the unpublished works, while
Rubinstein conspicuously left out the etudes. Beyond completeness,
François represented the French school in more than name; he was an individualist who did things his own way. In practice, this works out spectacularly well in some cases and less well in others. Much of it depends on the difficulty of the piece or the passage. Some of the etudes are sensitively played, and parts of the G minor Ballade are very beautifully phrased. The more difficult etudes and the conclusion of the Ballade are hit or miss, with more misses than hits. And so it goes, with the easy preludes like the E minor and the A minor coming off as fresh and spontaneous, while all of the Scherzos seem at any moment ready to go spinning out of control. Anyone interested in studying the evolution of
Chopin playing in the 20th century should have an interest in these recordings, but it seems unlikely that
François' style of playing will experience a revival because of the reissue of this 10-disc set.