The bicentenary of composer César Franck is discreetly reflected in our concert halls. On the other hand, the phonographic industry is inspired as rarely, this commemoration allowing a substantial enrichment of our knowledge of this important composer, organist and pedagogue.
César Franck was born on December 10, 1822 in Liège. He is therefore Belgian, but if we assimilate him to the current and the history of French music, it is rightly so. Naturalized French in 1870, he was a key figure in music in France in the second half of the 19th century.e century.
César Franck died on November 8, 1890. We like to recall that he suffered a road accident since in July 1890 his cab was hit by an omnibus and the composer was injured in this accident. How healed was his lung from the accident when the flu took him four months later? It remains unclear, but this fate is unfortunate, because Franck still had a lot to say in music, as evidenced by the concentration of masterpieces at the end of his life: the Symphony in D is from 1888, the Sonata for violin and piano of 1886, the great triptychs for piano of 1884 and 1887, Psyche of 1888.
A new style
Franck was nicknamed the “Pater Seraphicus”. This nickname given by his students in the organ class of the Paris Conservatoire respectfully greeted a believer, devoted to his art, his instrument and his teaching mission, detached from the frolicking inherent in Parisian musical life.
Franck is a product of the Paris Conservatory, where he had studied in the late 1830s. He was spotted very early in the French capital, since when he was awarded his piano prize, when he was only 16 , Cherubini, the director of the Conservatory, had created a special prize for him, considering that he had “doubled the difficulties of the competition”. Franck was also awarded, later, in counterpoint, then in organ.
Choosing to live in Paris from 1845, Franck earned his living as an organist and teacher. It was in 1859 that he reached the gallery of the Sainte-Clotilde church, a position finally worthy of him, where he stood out for his talents as an improviser. To become a professor of organ at the Conservatory in 1871, he adopted French nationality.
César Franck’s influence on French music is major for two reasons. He trained or influenced composers as important as Ernest Chausson, Vincent d’Indy, Henri Duparc, Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, Guillaume Lekeu or Guy Ropartz, who were called “La bande à Franck”. Moreover, he created a real musical current, propagated by his disciples. The “Franckist school” occupies an important space in the history of French music.
The most obvious element of this style is the use of the “cyclical” process which consists in the periodic return of one or more themes. The perfect example is 3e movement of the Symphony of Franck, where all the themes of the work reappear. Beyond this easily identifiable structural aspect, there is the sense of architecture and the work on a rich harmony, deliberately chromatic. From this point of view, Vincent d’Indy is the continuation of the Franckist school, whose aesthetics he propagated by founding the Schola cantorum. This lineage is opposed to a revival that would then be embodied by Debussy and Ravel.
From the imaginary sonata to unexpected releases
“And before Swann had had time to understand, and to say to himself: ‘It’s the little phrase of the SOnata of Vinteuil, let’s not listen!” all his memories of the time when Odette was in love with him, and which he had managed to keep invisible to this day in the depths of his being, deceived by this sudden ray of the time of love which they thought had returned, s They had woken up and, at full speed, had gone up to sing to him madly, without pity for his present misfortune, the forgotten refrains of happiness. ” The Sonata for violin and piano de Franck was cited by Marcel Proust as a major source that inspired the famous Vinteuil Sonatafictional work in In Search of Lost Time. It is easy to understand that Franck’s cyclic process and that of reminiscence in Proust go hand in hand.
This Sonata for violin and piano is a perfect gateway to the music of César Franck and, like the Symphony in D minor, the most accessible and eloquent example of cyclical aesthetics, since it seems to hatch, like a bird coming out of its nest and gradually spreading its wings. We will listen as the second idea, stated by the piano, then becomes intertwined with the theme. The score unfolds, and, as in the Symphony in Dthe Final will serve as a reunion of all the themes in a kind of “musical cosmos”. Augustin Dumay with Jean-Philippe Collard for the Sonata and Leonard Bernstein conducting the Orchester national de France in the Symphony are valuable guides.
The piano, which inspired Franck with three sublime compositions — Prelude, Chorale and Fugue ; Prelude, Aria and Finaleas well as Symphonic Variations with orchestra — was very well served by the performers. A new version, one of the most beautiful discs of the year Franck, associates, at Mirare, Tanguy de Williencourt, the Symphony Orchestra of Flanders and Kristiina Poska. For those who wish to see the two triptychs for piano, superb homages to Bach, the quintet with piano the version to choose is that of Alice Ader at Fuga Libera.
It is precisely to Fuga Libera that we owe the great editions of this year César Franck. The Belgian label has produced two remarkable box sets, an unprecedented editorial initiative as far as Franck is concerned. The first, of four CDs, includes the complete orchestral work by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, in recordings spanning between 2009 and 2021, under the direction of Christian Arming, Pierre Bleuse, Gergely Madaras, Hervé Niquet and Francois-Xavier Roth. This makes it possible to have, among other things, a new integral of Psycheof the two versions of Redemption and rare 2e Grand Concerto for piano and orchestra.
Same project, same size, for chamber music, a totally new achievement, with the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel of Belgium. This box allows in particular to rediscover the young composer, author of several Concert trios for piano, violin and cello and to note the gap between 1844 and 1877 (Quintet) during which Franck did not compose chamber music!
These two volumes are completed by a complete music for organ and harmonium. Beyond liturgical use, Franck paved the way for the symphonic organ. It will be recalled that Vierne and Tournemire were his pupils. Joris Verdin at Ricercar (recordings from 1990, 1998 and 2011) is the interpreter of this very complete integral. For who wants to settle for the famous three choirsthe interpretation of André Isoir remains one of the recommendable references.
To these exhaustive publications are added three discoveries.
Musique en Wallonie has published a CD “From the altar to the living room — Choral works”. We find Franck’s “Pater Seraphicus” side in largely unpublished scores sung by the excellent Namur Chamber Choir. In the middle of the 20 beaches obviously nestles the famous Panis Angelicus.
The Palazzetto Bru Zane has brought together a world premiere of the complete Melodies and Duets with pianoon two CDs with the excellent Tassis Christoyannis and Véronique Gens, with Jeff Cohen on the piano. This is a very little known part of Franck’s production. Moreover, the musicologist Alexandre Dratwicki recalls that at the time, already, we cataloged the creators. Franck “saw himself summed up in his organistic prowess and his revolutionary approach to instrumental music. No credit was therefore given to his secular lyrical corpus, be it melodies or operas. »
And, precisely, the latest discovery is hulda, an opera by Franck. This opera composed between 1879 and 1885, which Franck never saw during his lifetime, is a Norwegian saga which tells the epic of an avenging heroine. The Palazzetto Bru Zane has restored the complete version, offered in concert in Belgium and France. But while waiting for a possible publication of the concerts with Jennifer Holloway and Véronique Gens, hulda was published (also in its entirety) as a world premiere by Naxos with Meagan Miller in the title role under the direction of Fabrice Bollon. Excellent premiere for a “big opera” that deserves its resurrection.