César Franck (1822-1890)
Complete Orchestral Works
Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège
rec. 2009-21, Salle Philharmonique, Liège, Belgium
FUGA LIBERA FUG791 [4 CDs: 272]
This box set of four well-filled CDs describes itself as “the first genuinely complete survey of [César Franck’s] orchestral and concertante repertory”. As such, it conveniently serves a very useful purpose. Moreover, the fact that the various pieces are presented in strictly chronological order provides a valuable overview of Franck’s musical development. While the first disc takes in his compositions from the 1830s and 1840s, the second includes works composed between 1872 and 1881. The third and fourth discs cover the three years 1884-1887 when Franck was at his most productive in writing for orchestra.
Such a comprehensive survey inevitably reminds us quite strikingly of the sheer length of the composer’s career. Back in 2014 I had the pleasure of reviewing a DVD of a bizarre yet compelling staged production of the opera
Stradella that Franck wrote in 1841 at the age of just 19. This new collection demonstrates, however, that he was even more of a prodigy than that, with two ambitious sets of variations for piano and orchestra to his credit by the age of 12 and a substantial “grand concerto” following just a couple of years later. Juvenilia they may be – and, as one might therefore easily imagine, often pretty derivative stuff – but they are nonetheless highly enjoyable. Meanwhile, from the other end of Franck’s life, the set includes a performance of much the best-known of his orchestral works, his D minor symphony. Rarely heard in live concerts or on new recordings these days, the composer himself blithely ignored its nonplussed critics and seems to have regarded it as setting the seal on his compositional career.
Just as those orchestral compositions emerged over a considerable period of time, the recordings also appear to have been made in an extended and somewhat piecemeal manner. The earliest was made in 2009, while the most recent was set down just last year. Similarly, with no less than five different conductors being employed over those 12 years – three of them successive music directors of the orchestra - it looks like the earliest recordings, at least, were made on an ad hoc basis with no particular plan to record a set of consistently identifiable interpretations. I have to say that none of the five conductors represented here delivers anything less than enjoyable performances. Nevertheless, given the very high profile that François-Xavier Roth, briefly the orchestra’s music director way back in 2009-2010, has since acquired, I do wonder if the producers wish in hindsight that, if only for purely commercial reasons, they had stuck with him for the whole series.
Providing a degree of continuity, on the other hand, is the consistent participation of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. Franck himself was born in Liège exactly 200 years ago and the orchestra’s
website proudly announces that it is currently in the midst of celebrating that anniversary. Having listened to all the recordings in this set, I think it’s fair to observe that, regardless of the identity of the conductor on the podium in any particular piece, the OPRL players consistently demonstrate an accomplished affinity with the composer’s characteristic idiom.
I will concentrate, therefore, on the tracks that I found of particular interest or simply most enjoyable. As already noted, the juvenilia on Disc 1 have a character – or, perhaps more accurately, an absence of individual character – all their own. Nonetheless, the concertante pieces for piano and orchestra constitute an enjoyable introduction to the set. You’ll be reminded, primarily, of Mendelssohn – which is hardly surprising when you realise that Franck’s two sets of Variations brillantes and the so-called Duxième Grand Concerto were all written between the German composer’s first (1831) and second (1837) concertos. Incidentally, I refer to the Franck’s second concerto as so-called because no trace of a first concerto has ever been found; indeed, it’s been suggested that the “duxième” in the title was no more than a marketing ploy to promote the young composer as a rather more established figure than was actually the case.
Disc 2’s most interesting track is the first – the original (and hitherto unrecorded) version of Rédemption (morceau symphonique), a concert hall failure with orchestra and audience unable to comprehend or appreciate the score’s dramatic modulations (Franck’s students recalled his invariable instruction to “Modulate! Modulate!”) Our 21st century ears confirm, though, that in reality there is nothing to frighten the horses. Moreover, in several ways it’s an altogether more interesting piece than its successor, an opinion presumably shared by Franck himself, for he carefully preserved the scrapped manuscript for posterity. Even so, the revised, second version of the piece is undeniably skilfully wrought and most enjoyable. Conductor Hervé Niquet’s interpretation in this set may lack the visceral excitement engineered by Toscanini and his incisive NBC Symphony Orchestra brass, who may be seen as well as heard in a TV broadcast of 15 March 1952 (preserved on DVD on Testament SBDVD1007), but its generally more introvert approach has a distinctive and equal appeal of its own. It is worth noting, by the way, that M. Niquet has made a complete recording of Rédemption with the same orchestra, which generated a very positive review from my MusicWeb colleague Marc Rochester. Given that both the date and recording venue of the morceau symphonique as given here match those specified on the full recording, we might imagine, perhaps, that the former has been taken from the latter, even if the generally very useful booklet notes are silent on that point.
Preceded by Cédric Tiberghien’s idiomatic and most persuasive performances of Les djinns and the Variations symphoniques, the third disc concludes with another of Franck’s works for chorus and orchestra that deserves to be rather better known - the substantial symphonic poem for orchestra and chorus Psyché. As directed by Gergely Madaras, the orchestra’s current musical director, this particular account very effectively teases out the score’s underlying sensuality, a feature of Franck’s later compositions that appears to have somewhat disconcerted his straight-laced wife Félicité. Given that the composer spent virtually all of his adult life in France, the participation of the Choeur de Radio France is entirely appropriate in this celebratory box set. Moreover, its singers demonstrate, as you might imagine, a natural affinity with Franck’s music and their participation adds an authentically idiomatic feel to the whole performance.
The final disc inevitably includes a performance of Franck’s symphony in D minor. In a very competitive field, this account, directed by Christian Arming who was the orchestra’s music director from 2011 until 2019, more than holds its own. In that judgment I echo the verdict of my colleague Brian Reinhart who considered the Liège orchestra to be “a truly exemplary ensemble” in, on this occasion, “smashing form… [in] a performance of great romantic passion, epic sweep, and even a splendorous orchestral sound”. I would, however, advocate a modest teak on the controls to play the disc at a slightly higher volume setting than usual: I found that doing so somehow added a sense of real physical presence to the recording and, in so doing, elevated the entire stature of the performance.
This box set provides, then, not merely a usefully practical way to acquire Franck’s orchestral oeuvre, but a number of distinguished individual performances to boot. I am delighted to see it released to mark the composer’s 200th birthday.
Rob Maynard
Contents
Variations brillantes sur un theme original (1834) [14:17]
Variations brillantes sur la ronde favorite de Gustave III de Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1834) [13:06]
Duxième Grand Concerto en si mineur, op. 11 (1836) [27:33]
Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne (1846) [24:21]
Rédemption (morceau symphonique) (first version, 1872*) [12:07]
Rédemption (morceau symphonique) (second version, 1873) [10:31]
Les éolides (1875) [10:17]
Ballet de l’hiver et du printemps from the opera Hulda (1879) [17:11]
Le chasseur maudit (1881) [14:10]
Les djinns (1884) [12:18]
Variations symphoniques (1885) [16:14]
Psyché (1887) [46:08]
Prélude, choral et fugue (1884), orch. by Gabriel Pierné (1915) [19:18]
Symphony in D minor (1887) [39:09]
* first recording
Florian Noack (piano, both variations brillantes and Deuxième Grand Concerto)
Cédric Tiberghien (piano, Les djinns and variations symphoniques)
Choeur de Radio France
Conductors
François-Xavier Roth (Les éolides, Le chasseur maudit, Les djinns and Variations symphoniques)
Christian Arming (Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne, Ballet de l’hiver et du printemps and symphony)
Hervé Niquet (Rédemption, second version)
Pierre Bleuse (both variations brillantes, Deuxième Grand Concerto and Prélude, choral et fugue)
Gergely Madaras (Rédemption, first version, and Psyché)
