Franck and fashion

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Please note EG's comments were about the LP, but which CD issue is the object of your bile, EA?

The very first CD version, 1983.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I do have a soft spot for Cesar Franck's Symphony, but prefer his chamber works, especially the String Quartet. Mind you if Cesar's symphony is neglected in the concert hall spare a thought for the symphonies of his namesake Eduard Franck, I wonder when they were last featured in a concert, both works have some merit and fortunately have been recorded.

[cloughie]

Following up post 24 and combing through the Gramophone archive, it seems no-one had a serious problem with the DG ONF Bernstein. EG's review of the LP in 12/82 had minor reservations but was still very positive; comparing LP to CD, Sounds in Retrospect for 6/83 noted the improvement in definition and stronger bass on the CD. JS in 10/95 had only praise for the DG Masters Roussel 3 coupling I mentioned above, commenting that the ONF Franck was "much more alluringly recorded" than the 1959 NY account...

Finally JS - one of the master reviewers of Franch rep - did the Collection article on the Franck D Minor in 3/99. He said he'd "give Monteux his five cents", but had high praise for Paray, Dutoit, and yes, Karajan. He delighted greatly in his new discovery of the RCOA/Van Otterloo one too, with its vintage Amsterdam sound...

Franckly I've always liked the Symphony but for those not so keen there is a more upbeat version of it arranged by Billy May and recorded by a band led by Glen Gray.

[Don Petter]

Beecham's recording has always sounded harsh and raucous to me - for such a great conductor of French music I have always wondered whether the recording is to blame .

I don't recall this. You might prefer the mono recording (1957), on which I was brought up, to the early stereo (1959)

[Dave2002]

Stokowski - http://open.spotify.com/track/2fqsDNQ4FztVJLMC4BM6nN

Celibidache - http://open.spotify.com/track/1QdVJKDRaLxwnvw2youX0z

[Barbirollians]

I was inspired by ams 's suggestion that it should not be brucknerised to dig out the Furtwangler which was once coupled with his account of the Spring Symphony .

In the right hands well his brucknerised Franck is rather good !

[gurnemanz]

I will admit that I could imagine taking the Violin Sonata (Oistrakh/Richter) to a desert island with me.

Symphony: I own four CD versions all worth having: Bernstein, Beecham, Monteux, Toscanini - a formidable foursome.

[Ferretfancy]

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....

I may have heard Borodin 2, possibly at the RFH, but it does escape my memory, so it must have been a long time ago. I missed the Proms performance.

[richardfinegold]

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...

Paray

[jayne lee wilson]

The very first CD version, 1983.

I finally found EG's very brief review of this CD in Gramophone for 3/83 (c/w Rouet d'Omphale), where he said that the sound "differs very little" from the LP, but still offers more body, presence and detail and is transferred at a higher level (than the LP) from the analogue source...

[Roslynmuse]

I've just checked my score, which confirms what I thought (having not heard the piece for a long time) - there is no exposition repeat!

I've heard it live once - Hallé/Skrowacewski in the Free Trade Hall approx 1994, although as a youngster I played the first mt with my youth orchestra. Actually, I think I've heard another youth orchestra play it within the last ten years, so it still has a life! It's a piece I always start to listen to with great pleasure but I find the return of the lovely cor anglais theme from mt 2 in the Finale roared out by everyone fff a bit hard to take.

Does anyone know Peter Warlock's take on it? It's the second of his Two Cod-Pieces for piano duet (or at least that's the form they've been published). The first is a Beethoven 5 remix called 'Beethoven's Binge'; the Franck one is called 'The Old codger'.

My absolute favourite Franck piece is his 'Psyché' for chorus and orchestra. Matthias Bamert conducted a performance broadcast maybe 10 years ago - the best I've heard.

Borodin 2 - Mark Elder did it with the Hallé two years ago. And I played that with my youth orchestra too. I have never got on quite so well with that piece; I seem to remember enjoying the inner movements more than the outer ones.

[kea]

I quite liked the Franck symphony for a few years, Jesus Lopez-Cobos's recording being one of my first acquisitions (shortly followed by a Dover miniature score of the same). Though like many of the recordings I got to know circa age 10, I haven't listened to it in a very long time now.

Apparently it was a very popular work in those music appreciation courses that used to exist in universities/colleges, but when those disappeared, it sort of did as well.

[Dave2002]

Ignore just a second or two of poor intonation, and the last movement at least under Charles Munch with the BSO blazes away -

http://open.spotify.com/track/56njYwdbn3HksIMuU5529z

Now on to Paul Paray. Here he is - http://open.spotify.com/track/1Y5CPJWfjqz61QD0tVwTvw

Haven't got to the end of that yet - much sweeter sound in this representation. Very tidy orchestral playing from the Detroit SO.

[seabright]

Old record catalogues reveal a number of conductors who recorded it first on 78s and then again on LP: ie: Munch, Beecham, Stokowski, Monteux and Ormandy. Beecham recorded it three times (LPO 1940; Orchestre Nationale 1957 in mono; and again in 1959 in stereo) as did Stokowski (Philadelphia in 1927 and 1936; Hilversum Radio Philharmonic in 1970). In LP days many other conductors seemed to want a version of their own in the catalogue, including Abravanel, Ansermet, Barbirolli, Barenboim, Bernstein, Boult, Guilini, Furtwangler, Golschmann, Karajan, Klemperer, Otterloo, Maazel, Muti, Paray, and Sanderling. Incidentally, I too was puzzled by the question as to how many performances "include the Expo repeat" as (a) there are no repeat marks in the score and (b) the repeat is fully written out in a different key anyway. Therefore, not to include it would be a nonsense!

[teamsaint]

I've just checked my score, which confirms what I thought (having not heard the piece for a long time) - there is no exposition repeat!

I've heard it live once - Hallé/Skrowacewski in the Free Trade Hall approx 1994, although as a youngster I played the first mt with my youth orchestra. Actually, I think I've heard another youth orchestra play it within the last ten years, so it still has a life! It's a piece I always start to listen to with great pleasure but I find the return of the lovely cor anglais theme from mt 2 in the Finale roared out by everyone fff a bit hard to take.

Does anyone know Peter Warlock's take on it? It's the second of his Two Cod-Pieces for piano duet (or at least that's the form they've been published). The first is a Beethoven 5 remix called 'Beethoven's Binge'; the Franck one is called 'The Old codger'.

My absolute favourite Franck piece is his 'Psyché' for chorus and orchestra. Matthias Bamert conducted a performance broadcast maybe 10 years ago - the best I've heard.

Borodin 2 - Mark Elder did it with the Hallé two years ago. And I played that with my youth orchestra too. I have never got on quite so well with that piece; I seem to remember enjoying the inner movements more than the outer ones.

For anybody without a score, wishing to play "hunt the exposition repeat".

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ddfD-pla7aA

And here is some interesting stuff, unfortunately missing some of the illustrations, including a short description of the exposition repeat at P72

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qQGgAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=franck+symphony+exposition+repeat&source=bl&ots=FKgMs3GCds&sig=psUjfRXc6oZnwSlT2dXIOB_GnCw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CfHAU9W-EIPMObLygLgO&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=franck%20symphony%20exposition%20repeat&f=false

Don't know if anybody linked this by Tom Service, but it looks an excellent guide through the work.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2014/apr/29/symphony-guide-francks-d-minor