César Franck wrote a highly-regarded symphony, which I’ve been very slow to warm to (it’s taken decades, in fact). Never liked the insipid theme of the last movement. But I’ve gotten to the point where at last I’m willing to concede its overall greatest.

Much more congenial to me are his symphonic poems and his lovely chamber music.

No comment on the organ works – although I once attended a “Franckathon” at St. Clement’s Church in Philadelphia, back in the 1990s, at which his complete output for the instrument was presented, with two intermissions. Just to say I did. Well, that and for the free doughnuts and coffee.

He may very well have had the finest mutton chops in the world, I’ll grant him that.

Happy birthday, César Franck.

Symphony in D minor

“Le Chasseur maudit” (“The Accursed Huntsman”)

Piano Quintet in F minor

Violin Sonata in A major

“Grande pièce symphonique,” played by Marcel Dupré

Prelude, Chorale and Fugue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHftZ2-w4XE

And, for the season, “Panis Angelicus”