Franck: Symphony in D Minor, M. 48, Symphonic Variations, M.

Franck: Symphony in D Minor - Le Chasseur Maudit - Symphonic

Sonatas for Violin And Piano

Complete Works For Organ

The collaboration between Armenian violinist Nikolai Madojan and Danish pianist Elisabeth Westenholz produced a series of outstanding CDs starting with the Prokofiev Sonatas and Five Melodies (32185) in 1994. The Madojan/Westenholz duo has since been performing and recording to critical and popular acclaim. The world’s press wrote of their performances: “…Madojan…has a natural feel for the right inflexion…his is the more thought-provoking…Westenholz refreshingly tender-hearted and imaginative.” (Gramophone) “…Madojan is superb in capturing the expressive, genteel nature of the music. …His intonation is superb as well as timbre, and carefully balanced with the partnership of Westenholz.” (Intune) “…Madojan and Westenholz are a strong, articulate, well-proportioned and mutually reciprocal partnership.” (Gramophone)

Classical Music

Franck, Debussy & Enesco: Violin Sonatas

FRANCK COMPLETE ORGAN WORKS • Hans-Eberhard Roß (org) • AUDITE 21413 (6 CDs: 411:46)


When it comes to the organ, I think it’s safe to say that César Franck is the most important composer since Bach, and here we have a survey of Franck’s organ music so complete that it would take an entire page to list the entire contents of these six discs in standard Fanfare headnote format. In fact, there’s not another collection in existence this complete—not Jean Guillou’s, Marie-Claire Alain’s, Anthony Newman’s, or anyone else’s—since whole discs full of items here are flagged as being premiere recordings, premiere recordings for organ, premiere complete recordings, or premiere complete recordings for organ. So, I have decided to describe the set’s contents on a disc-by-disc basis. Let me forewarn the reader, though, that this is a release dedicated to the doggedly determined among lovers of organ music in general and Franck’s organ music in particular.


Organist Hans-Eberhard Roß performs all 142 pieces on a single instrument, the Goll organ at St. Martin’s Church in Memmingen, Germany. I haven’t been able to find any detailed information on the organ builder, but the enclosed booklet gives the following specifications for the organ: built in 1998, it has four manuals plus pedal, controlling 62 registers. The recordings were made between 2004 and 2005 and were originally released in three two-disc sets in SACD. The boxed-up, six-disc set that came to me for review was on standard, two-channel CDs.


One criticism I will lodge about the presentation is this: the track listings for every piece give the date it was composed, the date it was published, and which of nine editions Roß uses. This last bit of information about the editions may be of interest to the musicologist or scholar studying Franck’s organ works, but more interesting to the general listener, I think, would have been a concordance of stops and registrations used for each piece, something I’ve seen in the notes to other organ recordings, and something that ought, I think, to be material to an undertaking of this seriousness.


Disc 1 starts off with a first-time recording of Pièce en mi bémol ; i.e., Piece in E?. Of course, you’d have to listen to it to know if it was major or minor, but I’ll save you the effort. It’s more or less both, opening with a chord progression that eerily anticipates the ear-curling pronouncement at the beginning of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto. This is followed by another early work, Pièce pour Grand Orgue . It’s not asterisked as a premiere recording but is nonetheless absent from current listings except for this version. Several more early works fill the first disc, all dating from between 1854 and 1856. There are five pieces by Franck originally written for harmonium and transcribed for organ by Louis Vierne, and this is their first time on record. Also a first on record is a first version of a Fantaisie in C Major. Its second version, apparently not a first on record, is also included on the disc. Roß, himself, has transcribed the harmonium piece, Quasi Marcia , op. 22, and plays it here for the first time on organ.


If it’s mainly a CD of Franck’s big organ hits you want, you would be happy with just disc 2. They’re all there in one place: the Fantaisie in C Major, op. 16, the Grand Pièce Symphonique , op. 17, the Prélude, Fugue, et Variation , op. 18, the Pastorale , op. 19, Prière , op. 20, and Final, op. 21.


Disc 3 contains no fewer than 39 short pieces collected under the heading of Posthumous Pieces for Harmonium or Organ with Pedal for L’Office Ordinaire . This spills over onto disc 4, which contains another seven pieces that are part of the same collection. The fourth disc is then filled out by Three Pieces for Grand Organ , a Petit Offertoire , and an Untitled piece, that last two of which were both originally for harmonium. The entire contents of discs 3 and 4, with the exception of the Three Pieces for Grand Organ , are flagged with three asterisks (***), referencing the fact that they are heard here for the first time complete on organ.


Disc 5 and almost all of disc 6 are occupied by Franck’s answer to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier , the sets of Pieces for Organ or Harmonium. The number seven must have held some mystical significance for Franck because there are nine sets of these pieces, each containing seven numbers, beginning with 7 Pieces in C Major and C Minor , progressing to 7 Pieces in D?-Major and C?-Minor , then to 7 Pieces in D Major and D Minor , which he subtitles, Pour le temps de Noël , and so on. The cycle stops after the 7 Pieces in A?-Major and G?-Minor , leaving the keys of A, B?, and B unexplored. There’s nothing mysterious or supernatural about the reason; Franck died before he was able to finish the project. The entirety of the Pieces for Organ or Harmonium is also thrice asterisked, meaning this is its first complete recording on organ. The final disc in the set concludes with the 3 Chorales for Grand Organ.


At first, I was a bit skeptical of how Franck’s organ music would sound on a modern, German-built instrument. It’s difficult to disassociate these works from the Cavaillé-Coll organs that inspired them. Much of this music, in fact, was composed during Franck’s tenure as organist and maître de chapelle at Sainte-Clotilde between 1858 and 1872. Of the three-manual plus pedal Cavaillé-Coll organ installed in the church, Franck is quoted as saying, “If you only knew how I love this instrument . . . it is so supple beneath my fingers and so obedient to all my thoughts.”


Concluding the 63-page booklet note by Martin Weyer (translated by Viola Scheffel) is a lengthy apologia in defense of playing these works on a Goll organ. The author twists himself in knots talking about the historical period-instrument movement and then tries to turn the argument on its head by explaining why this modern Goll instrument is an appropriate substitute for a Cavaillé-Coll organ and Franck’s music. “Upon hearing the instrument,” Weyer contends, “one will discover a lot of similarities to the sort of instrument that Franck found inspiring.” One could counter that many an organist has recorded Franck’s organ works on authentic Cavaillé-Coll instruments, and that if organist Hans-Eberhard Roß had betaken himself to France to make these recordings, he could have done likewise. But, as far as I’m concerned, the point is irrelevant. Roß is a consummately accomplished player who uses the richly variegated palette of the Goll organ to paint Franck’s pieces in an amazing array of tonal color combinations both bright and subtle, and the acoustic of Memmingen’s St. Martin church, perfectly captured by Audite’s engineers, is ideal. Franck and Cavaillé-Coll are nodding their heads in approval.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Continuing the recording series of instrumental music by Eduard Franck which already includes his Violin Concertos Op. 30 and Op. 57, and also his Symphonies Op. 42 and Op. 47, now presents Franck's orchestral works. Once again, we hear music of the highest technical quality as well as a characteristic idiom. All were written during the 1840s when Franck set out on his career as a composer, attracting the interest of the music critics who from this time onwards were increasingly to influence musical history. The works recorded here reveal an attractive amalgamation of classicist and progressive trends, referring on the one hand to Schumann and Brahms, and on the other to Wagner and Liszt. They more than hold their own as original contributions to nineteenth century instrumental music.

E. FRANCK Piano Trios: in E; in Eb, op. 22; in D, op. 53 • Swiss Pn Tr • AUDITE 97690 (74:21)


By now, readers should be somewhat familiar with Eduard Franck (1817–1893), following half-a-dozen or so appearances he has made here on recordings mainly of his chamber works. The Audite label, in particular, though not exclusively, has taken up the dual causes of Eduard and his son Richard with 15 or so discs devoted in large part to the two composers’ chamber music output; and, being the compulsive collector of 19th-century chamber music that I am, I’m proud to say I’ve acquired every last one of them. But there’s more to Eduard Franck than quartets, quintets, sextets, trios, and duo sonatas; among Audite’s offerings have been two violin concertos, a disc of concert overtures, and two symphonies.


This latest release, containing three of Eduard’s piano trios, holds no surprises if you’ve already acquainted yourself with one or another previous Eduard Franck release, but like those that have preceded it, this disc of piano trios does hold in store just as many musical felicities.


I use the word “felicity” with intent; for Eduard studied privately with the “Felix” of Mendelssohn fame, and mostly Mendelssohn is what you get with these three trios. It’s really hard to describe how brimming over this music is with sheer contentment in untroubled, joyful song. The nonstop rippling piano parts are shot through with Mendelssohn’s nimble keyboard work, and even Franck’s melodies are consistently constructed from intervals and phrases that are dead ringers for Mendelssohn’s melodic invention. If you find Felix’s two piano trios irresistible, you will be thrilled to know that Eduard Franck composed at least four piano trios just like them.


In fact, this is Audite’s second volume of Franck’s piano trios. The first (92567), on SACD, contained the trios in E Minor, op. 11, and D Major, op. 58, performed by a different ensemble of players than the Swiss Piano Trio on the current disc, which, for some reason, did not come to me on SACD. Also, be aware that if you purchased the Naxos CD containing Franck’s sonatas for cello and violin, plus the Eb-Major Piano Trio I recommended in 36:5, the trio is duplicated on this Audite disc. No matter, though; it’s worth the one duplication to get the two additional trios included on the present CD.


This is now my third or fourth encounter with the Swiss Piano Trio on record, and each one has elicited from me the highest praise. The ensemble’s recent Audite release on SACD of Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio led me to declare the Swiss Piano Trio one of the top ensembles on today’s stage in 36:6; and in a 35:1 review of Robert Schumann’s piano trios, Steven Ritter declared the Swiss Piano Trio’s Audite SACD an essential recording.


It seems only fitting that the Swiss Piano Trio, having already committed Mendelssohn’s two piano trios to disc on another Audite SACD—to which I gave an urgent recommendation in 34: 6—should now turn its attention to Mendelssohn’s musical doppelgänger , Eduard Franck. You cannot love 19th-century piano trios in general, and Mendelssohn’s piano trios in particular, and not love these trios by Franck. Considering Franck’s dates, the skewing of his catalog towards chamber works (though he did pen symphonies and orchestral scores), and his strong leaning towards a Mendelssohnian style, he bears comparison, I think, to his very close “French-though-I-prefer-to-be-German” contemporary, Theodor Gouvy (1819–1898).


I just don’t understand why previous Audite releases have been SACDs and this one isn’t. Perhaps there is a parallel SACD version, and I just happened to receive the standard two-channel stereo CD one. Anyway, with the music, performances, and recording being so beguiling, it would be churlish of me to complain. This is a must-buy recommendation.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

C�sar Franck's R�demption (1873) is a pivotal work. It is an "ode-symphony," coming at the crossover point between oratorio, opera and symphonic poem - a vein brilliantly exploited by Franck in Psych� (1888) and Les B�atitudes (1891). R�demption also marks a further progression: with this vast fresco C�sar Franck became "le p�re Franck", leading father figure in the new French compositional school, the composer of maturity, creator of Le Chasseur maudit (1883), the Variations symphoniques (1885) and Les �olides (1885). Here we see the organist becoming a virtuoso in handling grand orchestral or vocal forces and taking his place amongst the major composers of the Symbolist period.

Classical Music

Franck’s string Quintets were written around 1845 and 1870 respectively, during a time of great demand for high-quality chamber music. Due to rapid development of bourgeois concert life, Franck proves to be one of the most original German-speaking composers of chamber music. The quintets satisfy both connoisseurs and enthusiasts alike thanks to their masterful command of contrapuntal techniques, and memorable melodic and thematic invention.

Includes work(s) for organ by César Franck. Soloist: Joris Verdin.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Here's a Franck D-minor Symphony in the classic French tradition of Paray and Munch: fast and exciting. In fact, at less than nine minutes, Tortelier's finale may very well be the swiftest ever, and tempos in both of the other movements never look back. Still, there's no trace of stiffness or lack of rhythmic flexibility. Others may well call it the "slim fast" approach or "Franck-lite," and the lack of self-indulgence does rob the quieter moments of some of their inherent mystery. I'm thinking here particularly of the symphony's opening, or the calm interlude in the finale just before the coda, where the "motto theme" returns accompanied by rich harp arpeggios, but it's not a major issue. Tortelier also isn't afraid to let the enthusiastic brass swamp the strings now and again, as at the end of the first movement's second subject, but my word, how those trumpets do ride the climaxes! In short, I'm not tossing out my favorites (aside from those listed above, these include Monteux/Chicago and Bernstein's DG remake), but this is much more than just another run-of-the-mill version.


The couplings also go well. Les Eolides has just the right skittish charm, and the Symphonic Variations pack considerably more energy than usual, though Louis Lortie's capable pianism must yield to Artur Rubinstein (RCA) and Ivan Moravec (Supraphon). I am less the impressed with Chandos' sonics. As with their recent Glinka CD, the big, reverberant acoustic works against the thrust of the performances. Something drier and crisper, with a better focus on cellos, basses, and timpani would have complimented Tortelier's approach much more readily. Nevertheless, if you love Franck's symphony, you'll enjoy this.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Audite continues its series of recordings of the works of Eduard Franck with a pair of principal works of his chamber music production. The two String Quartets deliver convincing proof of the Mendelssohn pupil's compositional mastery and count as exemplary in terms of realising the creative possibilities of the genre around 1870. The two Quartets, probably composed at about the same time, reveal a striking difference in character: the C minor Quartet, Op. 55 emphasises excited, dramatic gestures and attains great musical consistency, whereas the E-flat major Quartet is characterised by a far more differentiated stylistic variety - from reminiscences of Haydn to the dramatic 'Adagio molto espressivo' of the second movement. The Edinger Quartet attaches great value to the task of making little-known masterworks accessible to the public and has especially intensively dedicated itself to the chamber music of Eduard Franck.

FRANCK: Great Organ Works, Vol. 2

Classical Music

In Venice, with the carnival in full swing, the Duke of Pesaro arranges for his lieutenant Spadoni to abduct the beautiful Leonor. To make the young girl love him, he has hired Stradella, a famous singer and singing teacher. The Duke, however, is unaware that Stradella loves and is loved in secret by the beautiful girl. The lovers will be pursued by Pesaro's men all the way to Rome.

"Stradella" was probably composed between 1841 and 1842 (César Franck was just 21 years old) and is probably the result of his early experiences as accompanist to the Italian tenor Mario Bordogni. The opera has come to us virtually complete, as a piano score with some hints of orchestration. Luc van Hove orchestrated it and Stradella was thus staged for the first time at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie on 19th September 2012. Indeed the revival of this stunning opera provides an important tile in the mosaic of the artistic personality of one of the protagonists of 19th-century.

Paolo Arrivabeni,conductor - Jaco van Dormael, stage director, Marcc Laho (Stradella), Isabelle Cabatu (Leonor), Werner van Mechelen (Spadoni), Philippe Rouillon ( Pietro), Giovanni Iovino (Michael), Patrick Mignon (Beppo) Roger Joakim (Un officier)

This CD features rare but beautiful repertoire from Franck.

Following the release of their highly praised Naxos recording of Faure' Piano Quintets - 'warmly expressive, their phrasing generous and intense' - Cristina Ortiz and the Fine Arts Quartet again join forces for this recording of Franck' Piano Quintet.

"World premiere recording! Cesar Franck's first opera – staged for the first time! Known mainly for the few transcendent, harmonically adventurous instrumental works of his later years, Cesar Franck's first opera was composed when he was barely twenty years of age. Orchestrated by composer Luc Van Hove, from the autographic piano score manuscript. Paolo Arrivabeni conducts the Orchester & Chorus of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie. Stage direction by Jaco van Dormael."

Most of César Franck’s works received scant attention at the time of their composition and Hulda was never performed in his lifetime. The narrative is set in 14th-century Norway at the time of the great tribal kings, with marauding hordes spreading fear and terror throughout the land. Hulda is kidnapped and transferred from one tribe to the other, her family is killed and she herself is humiliated. However, Hulda’s spirit cannot be crushed, and she survives with revenge as her goal in life. Franck’s music portrays raging clans, bloodthirsty murderers and shattered lives, but also moments of exquisite tenderness in this acclaimed revival of a forgotten masterpiece that places the role of Hulda among the great tragic stage heroines.

César Franck’s great Violin Sonata in A, arranged for piano by Alfred Cortot, forms the focus on our new solo album featuring the gifted and successful pianist Michael Korstick. “The version without disturbing scratching noises does indeed have its appeal,” Korstick ironically opines and then explains, “I know that I’m now making myself extremely unpopular with all violinists, but some things come across even better in the version for piano alone. One doesn’t miss the violin.” This is of course a controversial statement, especially since it refers to the embodiment of the sensuous romantic violin sonata. “The fact is that Franck almost always thinks starting from the organ,” thus Korstick’s argument continues, “and Cortot so genially distributed the voices of the octaves that the polyphonic structure becomes clearer.” The audience at its premiere in Paris in 1885 was immediately enthused, and most pianists continue to be so even today. Michael Korstick regards this work as Franck’s “most important, central solo piece,” and the Franck expert Jörg Demus views the Prélude, Aria et Final as one of the few “lucid” compositions of the late romantic period and pardons it for its difficulty in playing technique: “But what do difficulties mean when the emotional content compensates one for it in such a rich way!”

With the present release the gifted Belgian Quatuor Danel ensemble turn to two masterpieces by Cesar Franck: his passionate Piano Quintet and the String Quartet. The three-movement Quintet, like Brahms’s op. 34 an expansion of the Schumannian model, is one of Franck’s most infamous works. It immediately established itself, and a second performance with the pianist Marie Poitevin, the later dedicatee of the Prelude, Choral et Fugue, convinced the members of the Societe Nationale. Franck’s String Quartet, his last major work, was similarly acclaimed by its first listeners. After its first performance in April 1890, with tears in his eyes, Cesar Franck is said to have told his pupil Vincent d’Indy, "Now you see: at long last the public is beginning to understand me."

-----

REVIEW:

Both of these works have been admirably served on disc, but this new recording is the most gripping yet - and by a long shot. Urgently recommended.

– Gramophone

Classical Music