France Clidat (Nantes, 22 November 1932 – Paris, 17 May 2012)[1] was a French pianist renowned for her interpretations of the works of Franz Liszt, a great many of which she recorded, and Erik Satie, whose complete piano works she recorded.
At the Budapest International Competition in September 1956, she won the Franz Liszt Prize, a prize that had not been awarded since 1937.[6] She later performed in many venues around the world. After a recital at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Bernard Gavoty, reviewer for Le Figaro, dubbed her "Madame Liszt".[5] She was also called "the Ambassadress of the French piano"[7] and she was named alongside Monique Haas, Cécile Ousset, Robert Casadesus and Philippe Entremont as outstanding representatives of the French piano school.[8]
In the 1960s and 1970s, for Les Éditions Vega, she recorded the following works of Franz Liszt for Decca:
Original works in the field of programme music (Années de pèlerinage, Legends etc.)
Works of purely folkloristic character (the Hungarian Rhapsodies and pieces generally in the form of dances, waltzes, mazurkas, polonaises, etc.)
Original works in the field of pure music (the Sonata in B minor, ballads, nocturnes, etc.)
Transcriptions or paraphrases from operas or lieder.[6]
This project included a number of premiere recordings of Liszt's works (Mephisto Waltzes Nos. 3 and 4, Valse oubliée No. 3, Mephisto Polka, Mazurka brillante, two Caprices-Valses, two Csardas, Scherzo and March, Marche solonelle in honour of Goethe, Galop in A minor and two Albumblätter)[6] and it gained her the Grand Prix du Disque de l'Académie Charles Cros and the Grand Prix de l'Académie Européenne du Disque. It is still claimed in various places that she recorded the "complete piano works of Liszt"[9] and "Liszt's complete pianistic output",[6] but this can be shown not to be the case when her Liszt recordings (24 LPs, which were later transferred to 28 CDs)[2] are compared with the 99 Liszt CDs recorded by Leslie Howard, which included over 300 premiere recordings. From 1980 she recorded for Forlane.[9]
She taught at the École Normale de Musique in Paris[4] for a number of years, where she attracted many students from around the world. She also gave masterclasses in various countries, particularly Japan.[5]
She published articles about Liszt's solo piano music, such as "The Transcendental Studies: A Lisztian Pianist's Impressions" in New Light on Liszt and His Music (Walker, Saffle, Deaville)[15] and "Aux sources littéraires de Franz Liszt", with Jeanne Fauré-Cousin, an entire double issue of La Révue musicale.[16]
Many works were dedicated to France Clidat[5] and Bruno Rossignol wrote an Aria et Fugato sur le Nom de France Clidat.[17]