César Franck is one of those composers
whose music you either adore or detest. One reason perhaps is
that he wore his Roman Catholicism on his sleeve; at any rate,
as a fellow-papist I belong firmly in the first camp. The Six
Pieces (1862), Three Pieces (1878) and the Three
Chorals (1890) constitute César Franck’s greatest
and most abiding organ works. I have heard most of them many
times (and indeed played some myself more than once), but always
as isolated pieces. Of course, one has long known that Franck
was the single most influential organ composer of the 19th century;
but to hear these pieces played as a continuous whole has proved
a revelation. It can truthfully be said that every facet of
the organ music of his successors – from Widor through to Vierne,
Tournemire, Dupré, Messiaen and a host of others – can
trace its roots to this music.
Early on in his career Franck became acquainted
with the organs which Aristide Cavaillé-Coll was building,
which were to exert a profound influence on Franck’s style of
composition. His designs rejected the baroque model in favour
of a more expressive and ‘romantic’ instrument, of which a new,
highly sensitive swell mechanism, his deployment of the voix
celestes and voix humaine stops and a distinctive
character he imparted to swell reeds were the most significant
features. They also came much nearer to the warmth and richness
of diapason tone to which English ears are accustomed. In 1858
Franck became organist at Saint-Clotilde in Paris (a post he
retained until the last year of his life) and it was there that
in 1859 Cavaillé-Coll installed one of his most celebrated
instruments.
For this collection Jean-Pierre Lecaudey has
turned to another of Cavaillé-Coll’s instruments – that
in the Abbey Church of Rouen, a four-manual organ built in 1890
and apparently unaltered to this today. It is a very different
instrument from those used in his other two recitals reviewed
elsewhere. Once again Lecaudey shows that he is one of today’s
most brilliant organists, a master of the music of many periods
and possessed of a formidable technique. His programme-note
also reveals the profound veneration in which he holds Franck.
From the opening notes of the Fantasia in C and throughout
he revels in the effects which the remarkably expressive swell-pedal
permit and which are part and parcel of Franck’s organ-language.
To be honest, the Fantasia in C is a
mite dull, but the Grande Pièce Symphonique most
certainly isn’t – a large-scale work of symphonic proportions
lasting over 25 minutes, with many dramatic eruptions alternating
with reflective, even devout interludes, and featuring the composer’s
favourite ‘terracing’ of sound-layers. Structurally, it also
displays Franck’s ability to merge disparate thematic elements
into a satisfying whole and develop a towering climax (sample
1).
The three relatively ‘lighter’ pieces which
follow reveal many felicitous touches (for instance, the cool
Variation [sample 2] and the crisply-articulated
and judiciously-registered Quasi Allegretto of the Pastorale
[track 14]). The Final is a masterpiece: it is based
entirely on a seemingly-innocuous five-note phrase which is
subjected to an endlessly imaginative series of mutations. Typically
ferocious French reeds dominate the movement (sample 3)
in which Lecaudey again deploys the swell-pedal to particularly
vivid effect and in which he does full justice to its overwhelming
climax.
Throughout the second disc Franck’s distinctive
inspiration and Lecaudey’s faithful response are equally in
evidence. If you are by now persuaded of these, then there’s
no need to go into further detail: if not, it’s your loss, not
mine! Suffice to say that the Three Chorals (completed
in Franck’s dying months) conclude a thoroughly absorbing programme
in magnificent style.
As with all his discs Lecaudey writes his own
programme-notes. These are highly informative – easily defying
the handicap of incompetent translations. He is again well served
by his producers – the sound is spacious yet immediate, bright
and natural. I cannot recommend these discs too highly.
Adrian Smith
Jean-Pierre Lecaudey
(organ) 