Fou Ts’ong’s father, Fou Lei, was a distinguished literary scholar and art critic who had spent five years in France studying Western art. An opponent of injustice, he translated French novels and works of philosophy into Chinese, and the environment in which his son grew up was one of a cultivated nature. Fou’s first influences were from listening to recordings whilst his first piano lessons came from Mario Paci, an Italian pianist and conductor living in Shanghai who had been a pupil of Sgambati. The lessons continued until the death of Paci and the outbreak of civil war in 1948. In 1951 Fou made his public debut with a performance of Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto Op. 73 with the Shanghai Orchestra. After gaining the third prize at the Bucharest Piano Competition, Fou achieved the same at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw (Vladimir Ashkenazy came second, Adam Harasiewicz first), but more importantly he was awarded the special prize for playing the Chopin mazurkas. A direct result of his participation in the competition was his receiving of a scholarship to study at the Warsaw Conservatory with Zbigniew Drzewiecki. Fou graduated with the Conservatory’s highest award and whilst in Poland gave over three hundred concerts in Eastern Europe. In 1957 Fou appeared with Russian violinist David Oistrakh in Moscow at the closing concert of the International Youth Festival, and four years later made his American debut in Cincinnati followed by an appearance at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1961 Fou was married to Yehudi Menuhin’s daughter Zamira, a marriage that lasted nine years.

Fou continues to tour the world and has performed in Europe, Japan, the Far East, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand and North and South America. He has been on the juries of many of the major piano competitions including Leeds, Queen Elisabeth, Geneva, Chopin, and Dino Ciani. He also teaches every year at the International Foundation for Young Pianists at Como, Italy.

The 1960s was Fou’s busiest time as a concert performer. From his base in London he travelled the world and became a favourite in Britain. At his London debut he played piano concertos by Mozart and Brahms with the London Symphony Orchestra and Alexander Gibson. ‘Immediately he made his first entry in the Mozart it was apparent that he had a very beautiful touch. Throughout all three movements he produced the most lovely, limpid tone, and showed exquisite finesse in all details of phrasing.’ It is apparent from early reviews that Fou is at his best in small-scale works which require delicacy and finesse, yet he could fill London’s Royal Festival Hall for two concerts which included the last three sonatas of Beethoven, some Mozart, Schubert and Chopin. In the Beethoven ‘suavity and clarity’ were admired and, as is often the case at this time, ‘…tonal beauty was again the outstanding characteristic of his Chopin playing.’

In the early 1960s Fou recorded some LPs for EMI/Westminster of Bach, (including the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue), Handel, Scarlatti and Schubert, including the Sonata in B flat D. 960.

In the late 1970s and 1980s Fou recorded many works of Chopin for CBS including the complete mazurkas, nocturnes, études, ballades and the Piano Sonata in B minor as well as some of the shorter and less well known works. It is a pity that thirty years elapsed between his winning of the special prize for mazurka playing and the complete recording for CBS. Chopin writer James Methuen-Campbell criticised the recorded sound and found the playing ‘variable’ although elsewhere he compared Fou’s recording of the F minor Fantaisie Op. 49 favourably to that of Alfred Cortot. Fortunately, some of Fou’s prize-winning mazurka performances were recorded at the Warsaw competition and have been released on compact disc. However, in March 1959, the month of his London debut, Fou recorded an LP for the World Record Club. It is an excellent disc of ten of Chopin’s mazurkas and the Piano Sonata in B minor Op. 58. This was later reissued on the Music for Pleasure label.

Fou likes to produce and edit his own recordings. ‘It’s not that I don’t trust producers, but I know from painful experience that editing really can ruin a performance.’ In the mid 1980s Fou recorded another selection of Scarlatti sonatas, which was issued on the Collins Classics label. Because Fou produces and owns his recordings he licences them to varying labels. The 1990s saw recordings appear on the Carlton Classics and IMP Masters labels of some Mozart piano concertos, with Fou himself conducting the Sinfonia Varsovia, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 Op. 58 conducted by Jerzy Swoboda. Other recordings with the Sinfonia Varsovia include Chopin’s Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2 for Carlton; and for the same label Fou has recorded a solo Mozart disc and a two-disc set of Schumann which includes Kreisleriana Op. 16, Kinderszenen Op. 15, Papillons Op. 2 and the Davidsbündlertänze Op. 6.

Recently the Collins and Carlton recordings, many of which were recorded in Poland, have reappeared on the Meridian label as well as a live concert of Schubert from St John’s Smith Square in London, and a two disc set of Debussy’s complete préludes and études. Many of Fou’s recordings do not show him in his best light because they do not capture the range of his delicate tonal shadings. The CBS set of mazurkas was a very early digital recording, and many of the Polish recordings also have a harshness of sound. However, when Fou is recorded well, the results are excellent. His best modern digital recording is a disc of Debussy issued by Collins Classics. The 1990 recordings of Debussy’s Images, Estampes and rarely-heard Images Oubliées are some of the most beautiful on disc and here can be heard all the attributes of Fou’s talent that were so often commented upon in his live performances.

‘I am a beginner. Thank God, now I am really beginning to understand music. Besides: Ts’ong means “good ear”. Its Chinese character is composed of an ear, an open window and a heart.’

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — Jonathan Summers (A–Z of Pianists, Naxos 8.558107–10).