With this SACD audite continues its Eduard Franck series. Franck's chamber music possesses special qualities, without question making him a distinguished artist. He was inspired by his friends Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn - who also taught him - as well as by the formal models of Viennese Classicism. The piano trios Op. 11 and Op. 58, two large-scale and sound-intensive works, are amongst Franck's most attractive compositions. Both works display an impressive compositional aplomb and a rich palette of stylistic devices. Today, Eduard Franck is considered a mediator between the generations of the main masters, a link between Schumann and Mendelssohn on the one hand and Bruch, Brahms and Bruckner on the other. The richness of these rediscovered works is surprising even a century after Franck's death. By recording his orchestral works and his chamber music, audite brings Franck's oeuvre to our attention. Internationally renowned artists who have dedicated themselves to Franck's works include Christiane Edinger. Together with cellist Lluís Claret and pianist Klaus Hellwig she has also recorded the two piano trios presented on this disc.

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

Although the two violin sonatas featured on this album were created less than fifteen years apart, they differ from each other in many respects. What is more, the former is known to a small group of recipients, while the latter has been conquering concert halls around the world for over a hundred years, gaining more and more followers. A well-known Polish violinist and teacher, Adam Wagner is a graduate of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice in the violin class of Prof. Ryszard Fastnacht. He received the title of Doctor of Musical Arts at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. On a number of occasions, he has performed as a soloist, interpreting, e.g. violin concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven, Jean Sibelius, Mieczysław Karłowicz, or Johann Sebastian Bach. His repertoire also includes orchestral solo parts in such works as Missa solemnis by Ludwig van Beethoven, Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, The Soldier’s Tale by Igor Stravinsky as well as in masses and oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Handel.

The pieces in the present collection give a virtually complete idea of Franck’s quality as a piano composer. We have selected from his early works only those which seemed to indicate most faithfully that somewhat neglected period in his life. We have included all the piano compositions of his later years. From the early works we have chosen the Grande Sonate op 10 (unpublished) written at the age of thirteen years, the Eglogue (1842), the Grand Caprice (1843), the Ballade (1844) and Trois petits riens (1846) (unpublished) preceding them with César Franck’s three first efforts in composition. The mature style of the master is shown in his four most important piano works, the Prelude, Chorale and Fugue (1884), Les Djinns for piano and orchestra (1884), Variations symphoniques for piano and orchestra (1885), the Prelude, Aria and Finale (1886), and also in two short pieces, Plaintes d’une poupée (1865) and Danse lente (1885), written for special occasions. Though the latter are simple in style and technique, they show none the less the unmistakable stamp of Franckian melody.

César Franck gradually abandoned his career as a virtuoso pianist as he completed his training under various Parisian masters, one of whom was the organist François Benoist. Franck then served as organist in various important Parisian churches from 1853 onwards before accepting a position at Sainte-Clotilde, where he benefited from Cavaillé-Coll's brand new instrument. He composed works for the organ as well as in other genres that became part of the apotheosis of what is now termed Le Renouveau français. Franck also composed pieces specifically intended for the harmonium. We are proud to mark the bicentenary of his birth with a reissue of his complete works for organ and for harmonium, in which Joris Verdin's fascinating interpretations have incorporated Franck’s own recently discovered metronome markings.

In the domain of chamber music, César Franck is mainly remembered for his three mature masterpieces: the Violin Sonata, the Piano Quintet and the String Quartet. However, right from his early days in Paris, the young piano virtuoso wrote and performed a number of compositions, chiefly keyboard trios, which were published as his op. 1 and earned him a favorable opinion from Franz Liszt! The masters of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and their artists in residence now invite us to enjoy the first complete recording of this set.

Orchestral music played a key role in the output of César Franck throughout his career. He accorded an important and innovative place to the symphonic poem, a new genre of the Romantic era: Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne actually dates from 1846, two years before Franz Liszt’s composition of the same name! As a virtuoso pianist himself, Franck also produced a number of concertante works, from early pieces written for his own performance – a few brilliant sets of variations and a youthful concerto – to the famous Symphonic Variations (1885). The Symphony in D minor of 1887 was one of the cornerstones of the renewal of the genre in France, coming between Saint-Saëns’s Third Symphony (1886) and Chausson’s Symphony (1899). The Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège presents here the first genuinely complete survey of this orchestral and concertante repertory, assembling recordings from recent years and some new productions.

REVIEW:

The year 2022 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of César Franck. His orchestral music is not so often heard these days, so this comprehensive collection of performances from his home-town orchestra is quite timely. It would, however, have proved very welcome at any date for the Liège players not only play very well but also deliver the scores idiomatically and with real conviction. This box set usefully and enjoyably reminds us that there is plenty of pleasurable listening to be explored beyond the D minor symphony.

-- MusicWeb International

Still in his twenties, Pétur Sakari studied in his native Finland and in Paris and made his recording début at the age of 18. On his previous disc for BIS, he performed works by five French composers, receiving international acclaim with top marks in Diapason as well as on the Klassik-Heute website. For the present disc, Pétur has chosen to focus on César Franck, performing the composer’s Three Pieces and Three Chorales ‘pour grand orgue’ on an instrument perfectly suited to the repertoire. Completed in 1880, the great organ in the Sainte-Croix cathedral of Orléans is a major – and well-preserved – example of the art of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the same maker who had previously built Franck’s beloved organ in Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. (‘My new organ? It’s an orchestra!’ was Franck’s verdict.) Together the two gave the French organ tradition a new impetus with Franck laying the groundwork for a French symphonic organ style while Cavaillé-Coll constructed hundreds of organs capable of producing a sound that was full, homogeneous and modern. The Trois Pièces, which closes with the famous Pièce héroïque, were written for a Cavaillé-Coll instrument built for the 1878 World Fair in Paris. Twelve years later, and only weeks before his untimely death, Franck completed the Trois Chorals. The idea of writing organ chorales was inspired by Bach, but Franck composed them ‘with quite a different plan’: instead of traditional hymns they use an original, freely composed melody which is gradually revealed ‘with great imagination’, as Franck himself put it in a letter to his publisher. Both the Pieces and especially the Chorales have become central works in the repertoire of concert organists.

The pianist Daniel Isoir is the son of one of the greatest French organists, who died in 2016, André Isoir. Like all children of musicians, he was bathed in music from birth, was impregnated with the organ repertory and notably with the works of César Franck, whose complete works his father recorded in 1975 on a Cavaillé-Coll. As a homage to his father, Daniel Isoir in turn plunges into these scores written originally for the piano, or being the result of celebrated transcriptions from the organ to the piano. A virtuoso pianist, Franck gave up quite early his first instrument, becoming the famous organist, titular of Sainte Clotilde, who for 38 years no longer composed for the piano while leaving an indelible imprint on the organ repertory. It was thus not until 1884 and 1887, having acquired a solid reputation as a composer, that he wrote his two great triptychs that belong to the great patrimony of the French piano. The third triptych was written down a bit later conjointly for large organ and for piano/harmonium duet. The celebrated 3ème Choral completes this programme, along with the bewitching Danse lente as the cherry on the cake. In order to record this music with its contained lyricism, its fluid, subtle harmonies, illuminated by memories as fleeting as they are dazzling of high virtuosity, Daniel Isoir has chosen an Erard piano of 1875, setting it off with magnificent luminosity and sumptuous colors.

With just a single modern recording in the catalogue, Franck’s hour-long fusion of oratorio form with symphonic poem counts as a notable rarity in his output, not so sprawling as the evening-long oratorio on the Beatitudes but still a dramatic canvas full of incident and contemplation well worth exploring by anyone familiar with the Symphony or the secular tone-poems such as Psyché and Le chausseur maudit. In fact Franck was in the middle of work on Les Beatitudes in 1871 when he read the ‘National Vow’ newly written by Edouard Blau, which attributed France’s recent misfortunes to divine punishment for the nation’s collective sins. The story’s narrative of Paganism enlightened by Christianity, which is then corrupted by unbelief and finally redeemed by prayer, struck a chord with Franck: ‘I will set this well because I believe in it.’ Rédemption was duly composed with passion and at speed, receiving its premiere on Maundy Thursday 1873. The form is unique, in which a symphonic poem (extracted by the likes of Munch and Toscanini) is surrounded by choruses and soprano arias as well as reflective interludes. The language is Franck at his most opulent and beautifully scored for orchestra. This live Dutch performance from 1976 was directed by Jean Fournet, a noted Franck specialist who made recordings of all the composer’s major orchestral works. Previously available only within large boxsets dedicated either to Franck or to Fournet, this is the single budget-priced version of Rédemption in the catalogue.

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

FRANCK: PIANO QUINTET, SOLO DE

César Franck is perhaps best known for his organ works and late masterpieces such as the Violin Sonata. His Symphony in D minor has also been widely recorded and is often coupled with LeChasseur maudit, a work that ranks among his most popular and frequently performed orchestral works. Les Éolides and Psychéare more impressionistic in atmosphere, and much appreciated for their subtle orchestration and lyrical inventiveness. Jean-Luc Tingaud’s recordings for Naxos have always done very well, with Poulenc’s Les Biches (8.573739) given a 10/10 score by ClassicsToday.com, along with comments such as ‘Tingaud’s precise, clear-eyed direction is just what this music needs’. Vincent d’Indy’s Second Symphony (8.573522), also with the RSNO, was given a rave review by Fanfare: ‘This recording [by] Tingaud and his Scottish orchestra should absolutely fire up new interest in a composer who has been unjustly neglected. Very strongly, if not urgently, recommended.’ The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has a worldwide reputation for the quality of its recordings, receiving two Diapason d’or de l’année awards for Symphonic Music and eight GRAMMY Award nominations over the last decade. The RSNO’s numerous Naxos recordings include Roussel’s Symphony No. 2(8.570529) conducted by Stéphane Denève which gained the Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’.

This marks the CD premiere of the piano transcription of the Franck violin sonata by Alfred Cortot - with new pianistic textures giving a special sonority to the unique harmonies of the masterpiece - paired with the Prelude, fugue et variation transcribed for piano by Harold Bauer. Domenico Codispoti plays with a beautiful blend of grandeur and intimacy and a wonderful transparency.

“Vox humana” or “Vox celestis”? For César Franck (1822-1890) the one is often a metaphor for the other; whether in sacred or secular vein, spirituality is inherent in all his vocal music, even the most modest of his choral works. Certain of these form the focus of attention in this first recording. They remain unpublished; were they perhaps thought to be of lesser worth for having originated in a religious or private celebration or in response to a publisher’s commission? We should remember that it was often the specific circumstances that provided Franck with the stimulus necessary for the realization of some of his masterpieces. Be that as it may, listening to these choral works offers the listener some delightful discoveries.