Franck and fashion

[Guest]

Fashion in music s an odd thing. Popular works, favourite composers- as represented in new CDs or concert performances- come and go.
I was listening to Barenboim's weighty (some would say slow) performance of Franck's Symphony last night and recalled that, in the 60s, it was hugely popular. From memory, there were a number of excellent recordings available- not just from Ansermet, Monteux and Munch, as one would expect, but from Klemperer and others in the German tradition
As far as I can see, it's been about six years since a new recording was released and I cannot recall a recent performance in one of London's major venues.
Why?

[Bryn]

Fashion in music s an odd thing. Popular works, favourite composers- as represented in new CDs or concert performances- come and go.
I was listening to Barenboim's weighty (some would say slow) performance of Franck's Symphony last night and recalled that, in the 60s, it was hugely popular. From memory, there were a number of excellent recordings available- not just from Ansermet, Monteux and Munch, as one would expect, but from Klemperer and others in the German tradition
As far as I can see, it's been about six years since a new recording was released and I cannot recall a recent performance in one of London's major venues.
Why?

You appear to have left out the recording, Beecham's with the French National Radio Orchestra:



which, to my great surprise, does not appear to currently occupy a space in the catalogue, other than in a boxed set of 6 CDs of French Music.

[Serial_Apologist]

Why?

If the composer had omitted the Exposition repeat from the first movement, and got say Koechlin in to re-orchestrate it, those lovely chromatic harmonies and catchy melodies throughout would have ensured its greater popularity, imv.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

If the composer had omitted the Exposition repeat from the first movement, and got say Koechlin in to re-orchestrate it, those lovely chromatic harmonies and catchy melodies throughout would have ensured its greater popularity, imv.

But that supposes/suggests that audience perception about structure and orchestration has changed from the 1960s when the work was more popular; which takes us back to Oliver's concluding "Why?"

(And how many performances in the work's popular heyday included the Expo repeat?)

[Pabmusic]

You appear to have left out the recording, Beecham's with the French National Radio Orchestra...

which, to my great surprise, does not appear to currently occupy a space in the catalogue, other than in a boxed set of 6 CDs of French Music.

I'd go for the Boult, which is even better (IMHO):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Conductors-Century-Adrian-Boult/dp/B00006IGIT/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1405077291&sr=8-5&keywords=boult+franck

It was, I think, a Reader's Digest-sponsored recording.

[Don Petter]

You appear to have left out the recording, Beecham's with the French National Radio Orchestra:



which, to my great surprise, does not appear to currently occupy a space in the catalogue, other than in a boxed set of 6 CDs of French Music.

RecordingS, as I recall? Wasn't that one of the works that Beecham had recorded in mono and then again in stereo? (I'm away from my reference works at the moment.)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

(And how many performances in the work's popular heyday included the Expo repeat?)

That may be a good point. Nowadays you have to be brave to omit exposition repeats (I consider to be unnecessary in many cases). Franck's D minor Symphony is one where insisting on the letter of the law may not be the best option. (Coat of armour now in place.)

[Ferretfancy]

I'm constantly struck by the fact that works that still sell well on recordings are hardly ever heard in the concert hall, and the Cesar Franck Symphony is one. I don't even remember whether I've ever heard a live performance, Borodin 2 is another example. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with audience popularity, what seems to be happening is that 19th and early 20th Century music is being slowly reduced in concerts.

Of course, at the same time there has been an expansion in other areas, but it troubles me that so much goes unheard. In particular, I miss the chance to encounter some of the shorter works that used to be played quite often, Mendelssohn Overtures come to mind, or even his piano concertos but there are countless others. I'm sure that musicians on these threads can enlighten us, is it just the whim of conductors and soloists that make concerts in London so unadventurous ?

[Serial_Apologist]

But that supposes/suggests that audience perception about structure and orchestration has changed from the 1960s when the work was more popular; which takes us back to Oliver's concluding "Why?"

(And how many performances in the work's popular heyday included the Expo repeat?)

D'you know, I honestly can't say, ferney. I don't recall the work being popular in the '60s, but there again I was solely into 20th C music back then. The LP I once had - a reissue from the 1960s iirc - did have the abovementioned repeat.

[teamsaint]

I'm constantly struck by the fact that works that still sell well on recordings are hardly ever heard in the concert hall, and the Cesar Franck Symphony is one. I don't even remember whether I've ever heard a live performance, Borodin 2 is another example. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with audience popularity, what seems to be happening is that 19th and early 20th Century music is being slowly reduced in concerts.

Of course, at the same time there has been an expansion in other areas, but it troubles me that so much goes unheard. In particular, I miss the chance to encounter some of the shorter works that used to be played quite often, Mendelssohn Overtures come to mind, or even his piano concertos but there are countless others. I'm sure that musicians on these threads can enlighten us, is it just the whim of conductors and soloists that make concerts in London so unadventurous ?

I am amazed that you have never managed to hear a Borodin 2 live. And what a shame. My one live experience of it was a student performance by the orchestra at my sons 6 th form college, and very good live it was.

I was going to say what a great proms work it would be, and then discovered it was performed last year, after a 40 year gap since the last performance.

Edit: I think I may have misread your post, re never having heard Borodin 2.
Friday afternoon....

[jayne lee wilson]

New recording from OPR de Liege/Christian Arming (Fuga Libera) came out last year, very positively reviewed by Duncan Druce in Gramophone for 5/2013...

Always had a soft spot for this piece.. best - Paray, Van Otterloo, Dutoit.... even HvK in a (very) different way... Langree, c/w excellent Chausson in 2004...

[ahinton]

If the composer had omitted the Exposition repeat from the first movement, and got say Koechlin in to re-orchestrate it, those lovely chromatic harmonies and catchy melodies throughout would have ensured its greater popularity, imv.

I'm not sure that I'd go quite that far, but I take your point; the work, fine as it is, always strikes me as a rather poor relation to the Chausson Symphony...

[verismissimo]

I really enjoyed this piece in the 60s and 70s. But I don't these days. Is that perhaps why it's not played any more?

[mercia]

looking to the proms archive as a barometer of when something is popular [in this country], it disappeared completely for 20 years

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/archive/search/work/symphony-in-d-minor/3001

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I wonder whether the first CD version of the Franck D Minor put people off the work as much as it did me. It was the FNO2 Bernstein, with the worst of of the worse of DG's incompetent digital recording quality at that time. The DG effect was long lasting, and it was only relatively recently that I acquired two new recordings that restored my faith in the work.