5:12:22 - César Franck (1822-1890)

[Serial_Apologist]

A marmite composer hereabouts, apparently, for reasons I am unable to fathom, the influential French composer César Franck now belatedly enjoys his first appearance on the forum, although I think he has been COTW before now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fntt

An opportunity to re-assess him?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A marmite composer hereabouts, apparently, for reasons I am unable to fathom, the influential French composer César Franck…

He worked in France, but was born in Walloon Belgium. His father was Belgian and his mother German. His surname can be confusing though…

[antongould]

A marmite composer hereabouts, apparently, for reasons I am unable to fathom, the influential French composer César Franck now belatedly enjoys his first appearance on the forum, although I think he has been COTW before now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fntt

An opportunity to re-assess him?

No problem with this thread S_A …. will post here in future …

[smittims]

I love most of Franck's music, but I can understand why some people find it glutinous, or 'slimy' according to one Kingsley Amis poem.

Many years ago I sat next to a friend at a rehearsal of 'Les Beatitudes' in which her husband was one of the soloists. She said 'I think it's a boring piece' ; I said I thought it one of the great choral masterpieces.

Recently I acquired a recording of 'Redemption' and I think it the most glorious and moving piece of music I've come to know in recent years. The conductor was Jean Fournet, who made some memorable Franck recordings (the complete 'Psyche', Les Djinns, etc.

[jayne lee wilson]

I love most of Franck's music, but I can understand why some people find it glutinous, or 'slimy' according to one Kingsley Amis poem.

Many years ago I sat next to a friend at a rehearsal of 'Les Beatitudes' in which her husband was one of the soloists. She said 'I think it's a boring piece' ; I said I thought it one of the great choral masterpieces.

Recently I acquired a recording of 'Redemption' and I think it the most glorious and moving piece of music I've come to know in recent years. The conductor was Jean Fournet, who made some memorable Franck recordings (the complete 'Psyche', Les Djinns, etc.

Have you heard the Lviv/Varela CD I posted on the other Franck thread, S? It really is lovely, I urge anyone to buy it for its musical beauties and the good cause it serves....
Great sequence! Playing it again last night, Les Djinns comes across very well, full of darkly obsessive intensity....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/César-Franck-Rédemption-Variations-Symphoniques/dp/B09YMD2KC3/ref=rvi_sccl_1/257-5213790-5190351?pd_rd_w=xJyUS&content-id=amzn1.sym.febd3956-4d60-4288-b8f2-cb468eb6674d&pf_rd_p=febd3956-4d60-4288-b8f2-cb468eb6674d&pf_rd_r=C1JMQHK9M7G5VJQ3VCJR&pd_rd_wg=MSuYx&pd_rd_r=8ec61f74-d23d-4273-8e44-620a1c9982dc&pd_rd_i=B09YMD2KC3&psc=1

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?21830-Franck-César&p=901439#post901439

The Lviv album reveals Franck's sound as powerful, yet capable of great delicacy.
Complaints about Franck's highly distinctive orchestral textures remind me of those many misperceptions regarding Schumann's orchestration, and Schoenberg's comment "my music isn't modern, it is merely badly played..."

(Still, the Schumann Question at least gave us Mahler's subtle adaptations, and very enjoyable they are...
If you really want to hear full-powered Schumann on a modern Symphony Orchestra, balanced to perfection, go hear the stunning SWR/Norrington, which I just discovered...)

[MickyD]

An interesting byway is the works for harmonium, recorded by Joris Verdin on a selection of historic harmoniums. Jos van Immerseel joins him on an Erard piano for the Prélude, fugue et variation.

[Master Jacques]

An interesting byway is the works for harmonium, recorded by Joris Verdin on a selection of historic harmoniums. Jos van Immerseel joins him on an Erard piano for the Prélude, fugue et variation.

Seconded indeed, one of my favourite discs - this is the very CD I had in mind when recommending the harmonium works in my earlier post. Beautifully done throughout, with so much variety in this extraordinary music. As a bonus, the harmonium+piano performance of the "earworm" Prélude, fugue et variation is the best I know.

[MickyD]

Seconded indeed, one of my favourite discs - this is the very CD I had in mind when recommending the harmonium works in my earlier post. Beautifully done throughout, with so much variety in this extraordinary music. As a bonus, the harmonium+piano performance of the "earworm" Prélude, fugue et variation is the best I know.

Agreed, it is beautifully done and as you say very difficult to get out of your head once heard!

[Keraulophone]

.
To my mind the best thing about César Franck, aside from his Violin Sonata in A and the Trois Chorales for organ, is the impassioned while at the same time ‘reserved’ Symphony in B flat major by his pupil Ernest Chausson. I long for the day it is programmed by a major orchestra in this country, having to content myself with the several available recordings, mainly by French orchestras.

TCMS (Trinity College Music Society, Cambridge) has been celebrating the Franck anniversary by playing a selection of his chamber music. All of their concerts are freely available from their YouTube page. I was in Trinity College chapel for the Piano Quintet recently: https://youtu.be/AbfcklDv83w

Bear in mind that these are undergraduate performers busy studying (mostly not for a degree in music) without much spare time to rehearse. I overheard the violist on the way out saying that it was the first time they had played it together! In situ, I thought the first violin led the performance well, with the pianist a little too far in the background.

[jayne lee wilson]

César Franck is the Cover Star of the 12/22 Gramophone, with a very insightful article by Jeremy Nicholas including fascinating detail about Franck's experiences as a child prodigy, his escape from his very pushy, overbearing Father, and how his music was often very critically received in his lifetime.
Which these current FoR3 threads sadly still seem to reflect....perhaps this Gramophone article could encourage greater enthusiasm.
As a young man, Franck could have won every prize going at the Conservatoire, but would mischievously do more than the competition asked, showing off his prowess and thereby disqualifying himself from the prize...!

Very fond of the chamber musical masterpieces.... the Quatuor Isaÿe collect the Violin Sonata, Piano Quintet and String Quartet together on a double album with excellent, highly detailed notes by Bernard Fournier on all the aspects of style, texture and cyclic form, and the historical context. Highly recommended!

[Serial_Apologist]

César Franck is the Cover Star of the 12/22 Gramophone, with a very insightful article by Jeremy Nicholas including fascinating detail about Franck's experiences as a child prodigy, his escape from his very pushy, overbearing Father, and how his music was often very critically received in his lifetime.
Which these current FoR3 threads sadly still seem to reflect....perhaps this Gramophone article could encourage greater enthusiasm.
As a young man, Franck could have won every prize going at the Conservatoire, but would mischievously do more than the competition asked, showing off his prowess and thereby disqualifying himself from the prize...!

Very fond of the chamber musical masterpieces.... the Quatuor Isaÿe collect the Violin Sonata, Piano Quintet and String Quartet together on a double album with excellent, highly detailed notes by Bernard Fournier on all the aspects of style, texture and cyclic form, and the historical context. Highly recommended!

Thanks jayne for letting us know - must look out now for this month's Gramophone. I'm particularly interested in Franck's development of chromatic harmony - in parallel in many ways with Fauré's - and in looking forward to the Second Viennese composers in some ways in advance of the New German School with its initial focus on opera and symphonic poem (until, that is, the arrivals of Reger and Zemlinsky married up post-Wagnerian harmonic advance with Brahmsian structural preoccupations). In their way the French Lisztian/Wagnerians, Led by Franck and much maligned by critics until quite recently I think, had more of an influence on subsequent French composers until the impact of Satie and Stravinsky around the time of WWI) than they are credited - and by no means was their influence always or necessarily malign.