Chopin: Ballades et Impromptus François Dumont

• Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849): Ballade No. 1 en Sol Mineur, Op. 23:
• 1 Chopin: Ballade No. 1 en Sol Mineur, Op. 23 09:20
• Ballade No. 2 en Fa Majeur, Op. 38:
• 2 Chopin: Ballade No. 2 en Fa Majeur, Op. 38 07:17
• Ballade No. 3 en La Bémol Majeur, Op. 47:
• 3 Chopin: Ballade No. 3 en La Bémol Majeur, Op. 47 07:50
• Ballade No. 4 en Fa Mineur, Op. 57:
• 4 Chopin: Ballade No. 4 en Fa Mineur, Op. 57 10:52
• Impromptu en Ut Dièse Mineur, Op. posth:
• 5 Chopin: Impromptu en Ut Dièse Mineur, Op. posth: Fantaisie-Impromptu 05:20
• Impromptu No. 1 en La Bémol Majeur, Op. 29:
• 6 Chopin: Impromptu No. 1 en La Bémol Majeur, Op. 29 04:16
• Impromptu No. 2 en Fa Dièse Majeur, Op. 36:
• 7 Chopin: Impromptu No. 2 en Fa Dièse Majeur, Op. 36 05:39
• Impromptu No. 3 en Sol Bémol Majeur, Op. 51:
• 8 Chopin: Impromptu No. 3 en Sol Bémol Majeur, Op. 51 05:17
• Total Runtime 55:51

Info for Chopin: Ballades et Impromptus

Ballades and Impromptus. Among the most suggestive of the titles Chopin bestowed on his works, they announce the poetic charge of two very different and contrasting genres. Where the Ballades are expansive and dense, with their dramatic power rooted in epic and legend and their bright or sombre hues, the Impromptus are light and concise, elusive and ephemeral, airy, fragile and volatile in texture, and with delicate touches of colour that spread joy, effervescent or serene, on the fleet wings of their melodies. These two aspects are but one at heart, though, in their essential romanticism, their lyricism and their roots in the fertile soil of improvisation, inseparable from the powerful inspiration that brought them into being. ...

Francois Dumont, Klavier

François Dumont
French pianist François Dumont's international career has been launched by his success in major international piano competitions winning prizes in the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw, Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland, the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan the Montecarlo Piano Masters, the Top of the world competition, Norway and the Cleveland International competition in the United States. In 2011 he has been nominated for the "Victoires de la musique", a major French classical music event. In 2012 he has received the Prix de la Révélation from the Syndicate of Music Critics in France.

François Dumont was fourteen years old when he entered the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Bruno Rigutto's class. He later studied with artists such as Murray Perahia, Leon Fleisher, Dmitri Bashkirov, Menahem Pressler, Andreas Staier and Fou Ts'ong, during masterclasses at the prestigious International Piano Academy Lake Como in Italy and works with William Grant Naboré as a recipient of the Theo Lieven Chair in Lugano Conservatory.

His recordings include the Complete Mozart Sonatas, two Chopin albums, a Wagner/Liszt CD, the complete Ravel piano music as well as the Complete Beethoven Trios.

He appears as a soloist with orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra and the Fortworth Symphony in the United-States, the Mariinsky Theater orchestra in St Petersburg, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (conductor Jesùs Lopez-Cobòs), Belgium National Symphony, Warsaw National Philharmonic (conductor Antoni Wit), Krakow Philharmonic, Montecarlo Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Tokyo Symphony in Japan, Wuhan Philharmonic in China.

Also much in demand as a chamber music partner, he has played with violinist Augustin Dumay, violist Tabea Zimmermann, cellist Henri Demarquette, the Talich Quartet, Quatuor Voce, Quatuor Debussy and Quatuor Sine Nomine. In April 2014 he plays the Complete Brahms Sonatas with Augustin Dumay. François Dumont is a member of the Trio Elégiaque, with Virginie Constant and Philippe Aïche.

Highlights of the 2014-2015 season include a Japan Tour with the Mikhalovsky Theater Orchestra performing Tchaikovsky Concerto n.1, Mozart concerti K.271 and K.466 with the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne (to be released on CD), as well as the two Ravel Concerti in Lyon, Auditorium, with the Orchestre National de Lyon conducted by Leonard Slatkin, which will be recorded for Naxos.

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