Featured In
ALBUMBeethoven - Cécile Ousset Plays Piano VariationsCécile Ousset
Albums by Cécile Ousset
ALBUMBeethoven - Cécile Ousset Plays Piano VariationsCécile Ousset
ALBUMBeethoven: Piano Variations - Volume 2Cécile Ousset
ALBUMBeethoven: Piano Variations - Vol. 1Cécile Ousset
ALBUMRachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 30 & Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36Günther Herbig, Philharmonia Orchestra & Cécile Ousset
ALBUMChopin: Sonatas, 4 Scherzi & 4 BalladesCécile Ousset
ALBUMLiszt: Piano Sonata in B Minor & Grandes études de PaganiniCécile Ousset
ALBUMRachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 18 & Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43Sir Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & Cécile Ousset
ALBUMProkofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 26 - Poulenc: Piano Concerto, FP 146Rudolf Barshai, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra & Cécile Ousset
ALBUMCécile Ousset: The Recordings For Decca FranceCécile Ousset
ALBUMChopin: Piano Sonatas 2 & 3 - Scherzi & BalladesCécile Ousset
Artist Biography
Cécile Ousset is a French pianist known for her powerful interpretations of large-scale Romantic works, from Liszt to Rachmaninoff, as well as her cultivated playing of French music from Debussy to Satie. She was born in 1936 in Tarbes, Southwest France, and studied at the Paris Conservatoire from the age of 10 with Marcel Ciampi.
International recognition was slow in coming, not helped by the fact that her early recordings (1971-76), for a small company licensed to the French arm of Decca, failed to get widespread release at the time. These include outstanding accounts of Beethoven’s complete variations for piano, Schumann’s Carnaval, Brahms’ Paganini Variations, and two dazzling Saint-Saëns Études.
It was only when Ousset signed to EMI in 1982 that she became well known, recording concertos by Liszt, Saint-Saëns, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff in Birmingham with Simon Rattle, as well as solo recordings—including of Liszt, Chopin, Mussorgsky, and Ravel—that confirm a formidable pianistic resource and robust clarity allied to a temperament perhaps best suited to music of exuberance and athleticism.
Hometown
France
Genre
Classical