César FRANCK (1822-1890)
The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross [39:18]
Trois pièces pour grand orgue [29:51]
Inga-Britt Andersson (soprano), Edwandro Strenzowski (tenor), Christian
Rathgeber (tenor), Sebastian Pilgrim (bass), Daniel Beckman
(organ)
Mainzer Domchor and Mainzer Domorchester/Karsten Storck
rec. 6 April 2014, Mainz Cathedral (St Martin) (Seven Last Words); 12 May
2015, St Stephan, Mainz (Trois pièces)
RONDEAU PRODUCTION ROP6110 [69:19]
For most people Franck’s reputation rests on the handful of orchestral and
instrumental works he composed towards the end of his life. However, his
range was wider than is generally recognised and even extended to opera. His
choral works, though nowadays neglected, are impressive and he himself
considered his oratorio Les Béatitudes to be his masterpiece.
Here we have a real rarity, his setting of the Seven last words.
Franck wrote this in 1859 but never published it and there is no record of a
performance in his lifetime. It finally surfaced from a private collection
in 1977, when the first performance was given. I wonder whether he felt it
was too much in the shadow of Gounod, whose setting of this text dates from
1855, but as I have not heard Gounod’s work this is only speculation.
Another possible reason for his withholding it is that Franck had not yet
really developed his mature style and the inconsistencies show: there are
florid, rather operatic arias, choral passages which can be homophonic and
occasionally hark back to Bach or even Palestrina at one point, as well as
the rich harmony characteristic of his mature work. Be that as it may, it is
a beautiful work and well worth hearing.
The seven last words are actually sentences, though mostly short, taken
from the gospels, none of which have all of them, and are brought together
for devotional use. As a text for music they suffer both from being short
and from being similar in mood. Franck therefore amplified them by adding
other passages from the Bible or the liturgy, thereby creating the
opportunity for more variation in mood and in texture. He uses four soloists
as well as choir and orchestra and despite the inconsistencies in style
achieves an overall unity which is both moving and impressive.
This performance has been most carefully prepared. Karsten Storck has
understood that with Franck’s rich textures, as with those of Brahms, the
important thing is to keep the music moving and not to luxuriate in the
harmonies, and also that the choir must be absolutely precise. The choir of
Mainz cathedral, a large all-male body, reward him with flexible and
expressive singing and the soloists make workmanlike contributions. I have
to say that the cathedral acoustic has a tendency to blur the textures so
that it can be difficult to make out the words. Fortunately the booklet
provides them all, both in the Latin which Franck sets and with translations
into German and English, the English translations being the old traditional
versions on which many of us were brought up. It also provides all the
source references. All this more than makes up for its rather vague and
rambling essay about the work.
The main work lasts for less than forty minutes so we have Franck’s
Trois pièces pour grand orgue to make up the balance. These are
well played by Daniel Beckman, but Franck actually composed them to
inaugurate a new Cavaillé-Coll instrument and the Mainz instrument does not
really sound right. Here the acoustic of the church chosen makes it hard to
follow Franck’s intricate argument and the opening of the final Pièce
héroïque dissolves into a blur. I put on Adriano Falcioni’s 2012 set of
Franck’s organ works for comparison and immediately the pieces snapped into
focus and I realized the difficulties Beckman’s instrument and setting were
creating.
There is little competition for the main work. There is not much to choose
musically between this performance and a 1979 performance under Hubert Beck
on Audite, re-mastered in 1993. That was in analogue but that matters less
than the fact that the soloists are recorded too far forward. There is also
no coupling so that disc, if you can find it, is short value. There is also
a performance under Michel Corboz which is coupled with Gounod’s setting.
This should be interesting but I have not heard it and it uses a reduced
scoring. Franckists wanting to explore beyond the few well-known works
should try this new version.
Stephen Barber
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