Francis Planté

Françis Plante ( born March 2, 1839 in Orthez, Pyrénées- Atlantiques department; † 19 December 1934 in Saint- Avit, Landes ) was a French pianist who was called by his contemporaries le Dieu du piano.

Life and work

At the age of four years had Françis Plante piano lessons with Madame Saint -Aubert, a pupil of Franz Liszt. In January 1849, he entered as a student of Antoine François Marmontel into the Paris Conservatoire, where she won in 1850 the first prize in piano. Gioacchino Rossini invited him to concerts in his living room, where he met musicians such as Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Sigismund Thalberg, Charles Gounod and Charles Marie Widor. In subsequent years, he appeared frequently as a chamber musician with the violinist Jean- Delphin Alard and cellist Auguste -Joseph Franchomme, a former chamber music Chopin on.

In 1858 he returned to the Conservatory and studied composition and theory of harmony there. He then retired for about ten years from the concert business to compose himself. In 1872 he returned to the concert stage and stepped up to the death of his wife in 1908 publicly. Special, who did much to disseminate the works of Robert Schumann in France.

Plante was not only famous as an excellent piano virtuoso, but also as an eccentric. Its shows that used to take between three and six hours, there was previously no programs, and he interrupted frequently to explain to the audience musical details.

Plante played in 1928 at his home in Mont -de- Marsan a series of recordings for the French Columbia. It is therefore next to Vladimir de Pachmann the only contemporary of Chopin, exist from the electrical recordings.