fifty years
of music in Paris

While still a law student, it was only natural that he began to organize concerts at the Assas faculty under the name "Jus et Musica".

After a first recital by Samson François organized in twenty-four hours in the spirit of the sixties, legends of orchestral conducting followed one another with Léopold Stokowski, Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Joseph Krips, Georg Solti or the debut of the young Claudio Abbado or those of the young Barenboim on piano and conducting with the English Chamber Orchestra.

It was also at Assas that Alfred Brendel made his debut, playing 7 recitals. Martha Argerich, Nelson Freire, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Maurizio Pollini performed Boulez's second sonata one day in 1973. Other illustrious elders enjoyed playing there, such as Rostropovich, Arthur Rubinstein, Alexis Weissenberg and Geza Anda, with a regular who sang no fewer than 5 Liederabendts: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. 

Hailed by the press as a “talent scout”, André Furno will continue to use this constant to the benefit of the Piano****.

It was in 1971 that the Théâtre des Champs Elysées gradually replaced the Assas concerts under the name Piano****, and this, until 1986. This is how Maurizio Pollini, Alfred Brendel, Murray Perahia, Radu Lupu, Vladimir Ashkenasy, Nelson Freire yon took their first steps, reserving for this theater the exclusivity of their appearance in recital. Complete piano cycles were produced like the first Schubert cycle by Alfred Brendel or that of Mozart sonatas by Friedrich Gulda.

European orchestras represented a significant part of these seasons. Among them are the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the English Chamber Orchestra in a complete Brandenburg concerts with Karl Richter, the Academy St Martin in the Fields, but also the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Claudio Abbado, with no less than 15 concerts.

In 1985, it was the Salle Pleyel 's turn to welcome the Piano4 étoiles. For 15 years, major orchestral cycles were produced, such as Claudio Abbado's complete Beethoven works with Maurizio Pollini and the Wiener Philharmoniker in 1989, or the Brahms cycles of 1993 and Mahler cycles of 1995, 97 and 99 with the Berliner Philharmoniker also under the direction of Claudio Abbado.

The piano, always present, will be illustrated by the cycle of 32 Beethoven sonatas by Maurizio Pollini, as well as those of Alfred Brendel, and by a complete Chopin by Nikita Magaloff.

A resident at the Philharmonie de Paris since its opening in January 2015, Paris finally has its first concert hall worthy of the name. He will be one of the first to inaugurate this hall with its ideal acoustics, praised by all the artists who have performed there, where listening comfort is coupled with the pleasure of feeling in a place that invites you to listen to the music and to love it.

But to bring music to life, it is not enough to have composers; you also need performers, who magnify it, in the words of Bruno Walter, "like creators in the second degree."

Music accessible to all

From its very beginnings, the piano**** has had no other rules than to serve music and the great artists who defend and illustrate it. This is why André Furno has always been keen to respect the wishes and requirements of all the artists he has produced.  


For him, the concert represents this social fusion that brings people together and allows us to listen to others. It has the power to bring people together and unite, in a word, to unify. It is aimed at everyone, whether music lovers are experienced or not.

Music is nothing thought out or constructed; in that sense, it comes directly from the hands of nature.

The experience of the concerts in Assas illustrates this.