Classic Ross Amico

Tag: César Franck

César Franck: A Love-Hate Relationship

Franckly, I’ve never been all that fond of César Franck’s Symphony in D minor. It’s no secret that I find the big theme of the last movement to be insipid. But prolonged exposure has done its work and now I at least concede the symphony’s overall greatness. Like Bruckner (a composer I have no problem with), Franck’s long experience as an organist unmistakably colors the piece. Understanding this makes it moderately more enjoyable. Still, it’s not something I would ordinarily go out of my way to listen to. I rank it perhaps just a notch above Schubert’s “Great” C major symphony, which is a total snooze. When Schumann hailed the latter work for its “heavenly length,” I can only hope he was being sarcastic.

Shakespeare’s proverb “brevity is the soul of wit” could be applied to this seasonal gem by Franck, “Panis Angelicus.” The text, by Thomas Aquinas, was actually intended for Corpus Christi, but thanks to Luciano Pavarotti and any number of other opera singers, who included Franck’s setting on their Christmas albums, I will always associate it with this time of year.

Aquinas’ text, translated from the Latin:

Thus Angels’ Bread is made
the Bread of man today:
the Living Bread from heaven
with figures dost away:
O wondrous gift indeed!
the poor and lowly may
upon their Lord and Master feed.

Thee, therefore, we implore,
o Godhead, One in Three,
so may Thou visit us
as we now worship Thee;
and lead us on Thy way,
That we at last may see
the light wherein Thou dwellest aye.
Amen.

Other composers to have set the lines include João Lourenço Rebelo, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, André Caplet, and Camille Saint-Saëns. None of the settings are as well known as Franck’s. For me, anyway, Franck’s star rises in the yeast.

“Panis Angelicus”

Sung by Pavarotti

As good a performance of the Symphony in D minor as you’re likely to get

Though I much prefer Franck’s symphonic poems, especially “Le Chasseur maudit” (“The Accursed Huntsman”)

And his lovely Violin Sonata in A major

Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor riled his wife (and his rival, Saint-Saëns), since it evidently sprang from his illicit love for one of his pupils, Augusta Holmès

Franck’s “Grande pièce symphonique,” played by Marcel Dupré

Prelude, Chorale and Fugue

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

Happy birthday, César Franck!

December 10, 2024
César Franck and His Belgian Legacy

César Franck was a strangely charismatic outsider. A Belgian abroad, he was required to take French citizenship in order to teach at the Paris Conservatory. A renowned organist, his unexpected genius for composition blossomed late.

His enduring fame rests on a handful of fairly late works. He managed to reinvigorate the French symphonic and chamber music traditions through his use of “cyclic form,” with themes throughout generated from a single motif. He also embraced the symphonic poem. In these regards he certainly bore the influence of Franz Liszt. In turn, he himself became highly influential among a generation of French and Belgian composers.

This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll examine music by two Belgians who fell under his sway.

Armand Marsick, born in 1877, trained as a violinist at the Liège Conservatory, before studying abroad in Nancy with Franck enthusiast Guy Ropartz. Then he moved to Paris, where he studied with another Franckian, Vincent d’Indy. His career led him to Athens, and then Bilbao, where he founded a conservatory and an orchestra. He returned to Liège at the age of 50, settling in to teach and direct the concert society there. He died in 1959. The bulk of Marsick’s compositional output, which consisted of some forty works, was written between the ages of 23 and 37. We’ll enjoy a symphonic poem from 1908, titled “La Source.”

Guillaume Lekeu was born in Verviers in 1870. He studied with Franck in Paris, then, like Marsick, with d’Indy following Franck’s death. Lekeu, unfortunately, is also remarkable for his very short life. He became ill with typhoid fever after consuming contaminated sherbet at a restaurant, and died in 1894, one day after his 24th birthday. Despite his sadly shortened existence, he managed to make important contacts and to write music of considerable promise. At the time of his death, he had already been composing for nine years, from the age of 15. In 1891 he was recipient of a second prize in the celebrated Prix de Rome competition.

In all, Lekeu composed about 50 works. We’ll hear his Violin Sonata from 1892, written for the great Belgian virtuoso Eugene Ysaye, and his Adagio from 1891, originally composed for quartet and string orchestra. The score to the latter bears an epigraph from a poem by Georges Vanor, “The pale flowers of memory.”

I hope you’ll join me for music by these Belgian followers of César Franck. That’s “Franckly Belgian,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

September 14, 2024
Franck, Saint-Saëns, & Unrequited Love

Camille Saint-Saëns was not only the dedicatee of the Piano Quintet in F minor by his friend, César Franck; he also played in work’s premiere in 1879. But as he sight-read through the piano part, he became more and more agitated – angry, even. At the conclusion of the piece, he rejected Franck’s attempt to shake his hand, and stormed off without acknowledging the applause.

He wasn’t the only one. Franck’s wife also made no secret of hating it.

Here was music of sublimated desire, and everyone knew the cause. Saint-Saëns knew, because he felt the same way about Franck’s pupil, Augusta Holmès. Franck tutored Holmès in organ and composition. No doubt he admired her musical talent, but equally there was no doubt his interest went beyond that of master-disciple. Don’t let those mutton chops fool you. A man is only flesh and blood. And in Franck’s case, also mutton chops.

There must have been something about Holmès, the French composer of Irish descent, because she had the same effect on just about every man she crossed paths with. Saint-Saëns had proposed marriage to her multiple times, always without success. He would refer to her as a “beautiful pythoness.” Methinks his vines had tender sour grapes.

I know I’ve made no secret of my struggles with the popularity of Franck’s highly-regarded Symphony in D minor. I’ve been very slow to warm to it. It’s taken decades, in fact. I never much liked the insipid theme of the last movement. But I’ve gotten to the point now 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.

Nothing makes Franck more palatable than caffeine and fried dough.

Happy birthday, mon vieux!

Incendiary Piano Quintet in F minor

Symphony in D minor

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

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”

December 10, 2023
César Franck Bicentennial A Late Appreciation

The Belgian-born French composer César Franck was born on this date 200 years ago.

I was slow to warm to Franck’s highly-regarded Symphony in D minor, in particular to the insipid theme of the last movement. It’s taken decades, but I think I’ve finally gotten to the point where I’m willing to concede its overall greatness.

Much more congenial to me have always been Franck’s 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 that 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 bicentennial, César Franck!

Symphony in D minor (insipid theme starts at 28:39)

“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”

December 10, 2022
Franckathon Princeton: César Franck Organ Music

Franckathon in Princeton this weekend!

2022 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of composer César Franck (on December 10, 2022). To celebrate Belgium’s bewhiskered wonder, Scott Dettra will perform all Franck’s major organ works in a two-part recital at Princeton University Chapel, tomorrow (Saturday) at 3:30 pm and 8 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Decades ago, I attended a Franckathon in Philadelphia. On that occasion, the complete organ works were presented in a single session with two intermissions, as the audience anesthetized itself with free coffee and doughnuts.

No coffee or doughnuts advertised for tomorrow’s concert, but with a three-hour break between sittings, you should be able to nose around Princeton for some sustenance (and some NoDoz).

I never could say no to a good marathon, especially one that tests my endurance so assuredly as does the organ music of César Franck.

But if you’re going to do it, this is the setting, the instrument, the performer, and the occasion with which and on which to do so.

‘Tis the season to seize on Franck!

September 23, 2022

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