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César Franck
(1822-1890)
transcribed and edited for organ by
Notes
César Franck, born in Liège, Belgium in 1822, pursued his higher music education in Paris and went on to make his career there as a professor of organ at the Conservatoire, in addition to his extensive musical activities at the church of Ste. Clotilde, where he presided over a 3-manual pipe organ built by the firm of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.
The first version of his Poéme–Symphonique was completed in 1873 and received its première performance the same year on Maundy Thursday. Its preparation and rehearsals were beset with problems and difficulties, and a substantial cut of its central section became necessary at the last moment. Franck was undaunted by its relative failure, and with encouragement from d’Indy and Duparc, he reworked the composition, with substantial key changes and with the addition of new thematic materials. The revised version was published in 1874 and premiered that same year by the Société Nationale; again its reception was disappointing.
The Interlude Symphonique, exerpted from the larger work, has taken its place alongside Franck’s three other symphonic poems for orchestra: Le chasseur maudit, Les Eolides, and Les Djinns. Although far from being well known in the repertoire, the work is dramatic in its religiously prayerful impact and is marked by the composer’s consummate compositional arts and skills.
In recently discovered correspondences from Franck to an American acquaintance in New York, dated October 12, 1887, the composer has included a list of thirteen of his major works for various media, and appended "a piece to this already long list – a grand Morceau symphonique from the oratorio, Rédemption, for four hands and which one of my students, M. Pierre de Bréville, has arranged admirably for two pianos." Years later, Marcel Dupré transcribed the work for organ solo and made an annual tradition of performing it at the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass at Saint-Sulpice; his transcription was published in 1972, the year after his death, with his widow’s encouragement. [Rollin Smith, The American Organist, September 2003] Other transcriptions have been made and published, including one by Daniel Roth that is dated 1996.
The adaptation offered here attempts to retain the uniquely symphonic elements, while at the same time rendering the work into the idiom of Franck’s compositions for solo organ. The end result, although extraordinarily technically demanding for the performer and instrument alike, is both moving and triumphant, and offers the unusual opportunity of new life for a forgotten opus.
Copyright © 2005 Ennis Fruhauf
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