Exactly one year ago, Alexis Weissenberg (1929 - 2012) passed away. The above two videos are posted as a tribute to this world-renowned pianist.
Weissenberg was widely known as a classical pianist. However, like Samson François, Weissenberg also played jazz in his private life. For many years, a legendary recording (45 rpm EP) of six piano arrangements of Trenet songs have been circulating and the scores were wildly sought after since then. This fabulous recording is called "Mr. Nobody plays Trenet" and the Mr. Nobody in question was only identified as Alexis Weissenberg when Marc-André Hamelin published his "In a State of Jazz", despite the fact that Hamelin is not the first pianist to record these arrangements (Leif Ove Andsnes had recorded before one, namely 'Coin de Rue', from the set in his EMI album "Horizon" but at that time Mr. Nobody was still mysteriously veiled).
In the videos, both pieces were played by Frederic Koon. While Vous qui passez sans me voir was notated by Frederic Koon, En Avril, á Paris was transcribed by the wonderful Singaporean pianist Wei-Yuan Chua. I seize the chance here to express my gratitude to him for providing me his illustrious work.
