GustavoGustavo GimenoGimeno franck symphony in d minor symphonic variations Denis Kozhukhin Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg 1 César Franck (1822–1890) Franck’s Symphonic – nicknamed the franckistes – which included Variations and Symphony: Vincent d’Indy, Ernest Chausson and Henri Symphony in D minor (1887/1888) Design, style and contexts Duparc, leaders of their generation. 1 Lento – Allegro ma non troppo – Allegro 17. 32 2 Allegretto 10.04 Franck composed the Symphonic Variations 3 Allegro non troppo 9. 57 Andrew Deruchie for piano and orchestra in the autumn of 1885. His immediate stimulus came Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra (1885) It would be no overstatement to call César from the virtuoso pianist Louis Diémer 4 Poco allegro 1. 48 Franck (1822–1890) one of late nineteenth- (1843–1919), who would give the premiere 5 Poco più lento 2. 28 century France’s most important and and who the previous March had dazzled 6 Allegretto quasi andante 0. 35 influential composers. Together with Camille Franck at the premiere of the composer’s 7 Variation I 0. 37 Saint-Saëns, Franck played a seminal role in Les Djinns, a symphonic poem with 8 Variation II 0. 34 the resurgence of orchestral and chamber obbligato piano. «You played splendidly», 9 Variation III 0. 31 music in the decades after the Franco- Franck is said to have told Diémer, «I will 10 Variation IV 0. 58 Prussian war and Paris Commune of 1870/71. write you a special little piece». Hardly 11 Variation V 0. 30 His music’s intense seriousness of purpose, little, the resulting work evinces a strikingly 12 Variation VI. Molto più lento 1. 13 his progressive harmonic style, robust original synthesis of genres. In its textures, 13 A tempo 2. 43 construction, innovative usage of cyclic form it sounds at times like a piano concerto, 14 Allegro non troppo 1. 52 (where themes from earlier movements with the instrument frequently assuming 15 Un pochettino ritenuto 0. 33 are recalled or developed in later ones) and a commanding, soloistic role or adorning 16 Tempo 1 1. 56 spiritual, at times mystical, tone made for the orchestra with rich figuration. As the Total playing time: 54. 01 a distinctive and compelling impress. These title suggests, the piece draws abundantly characteristics, along with Franck’s warm upon the theme-and-variations genre. Like Denis Kozhukhin Piano and modest personality attracted a coterie some symphonic poems, the work unfurls Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg of students and enthusiastic champions a single, formally concentrated movement Gustavo Gimeno Conductor 3 that makes reference to the various all varying, elaborating, and recombining variations having resembled a scherzo recapturing the dance topos of the central movement types of the conventional these elements. embedded within the set, the final two section’s theme. symphony. And in its meticulous working variations together act as a miniature slow out of motivic material, large-scale The piano introduces the theme – a minor- «movement». The fifth, in a warm F sharp If one takes popular appeal and staying cohesion, and overall tonal trajectory from key version of the triple-meter dance – for major, has the piano in counterpoint with power in the repertoire as a measure, the F sharp minor to F sharp major, it evokes the central variations set. In the first of the cellos. In the final variation, back in the French symphony never prospered more the symphony itself. the six ensuing variations, the dance tune minor mode, the cellos vary the dreamy than during the decade following 1885. gets passed between the cellos, winds, fragment from the opening, accompanied One might fairly claim that France rivaled Also strikingly original in its complex and and violins, with the piano providing a by repetitive figuration in the piano and – or even eclipsed – Austria and Germany sophisticated large-scale design, the piece rhythmically steady counterpoint. In sustained chords in the strings. as the genre’s leading centre during these comprises three large parts of roughly equal the second variation, the rhythmic flow years, which bore witness to D’Indy’s lengths: an expository opening section, intensifies, and the tune returns to the The finale, announced by a pair of Symphonie sur un chant montagnard a little theme-and-variations set, and a piano, with the orchestra accenting the extended trills in the piano, a lively new français (Symphony on a French Mountain rollicking finale. Franck employs variation second beat of each triple-time measure. tempo, and a shift to F sharp major, Air, 1886), also called Symphonie cévenole, procedures from the outset. The opening The longest and liveliest of the little is summative and climactic in the and the lone symphonies of Édouard bars introduce and immediately vary two set, the third variation incorporates the nineteenth-century tradition. Franck Lalo (1886), Ernest Chausson (1890/91), fragments, a gruff, dotted figure played dotted rhythm of the gruff figure from the continues to employ variation procedures and Paul Dukas (1895/96). Two works, forte by the strings and a dreamy, lyrical opening. As rushing triplets increasingly here, producing its materials by skillfully however, stand out as the great jewels one played softly by the piano. There then suffuse the texture, this variation comes reworking elements from the opening of the period, Camille Saint-Saëns’s Third follow two more substantial passages, to sound like a symphonic scherzo. The section (the first theme after the trills, «Organ» Symphony (1886) and Franck’s the first (in the piano) taking up the scherzo character persists in the quieter for example, derives from the dreamy Symphony in D minor (1887—88). Classics dreamy character, and the second (in the and darker fourth variation, the rushing fragment from the opening measures). by the outbreak of the First World War, orchestra) a dance-like passage in triple triplets now in the piano, and the tune, It also nods to the eighteenth-century both remain celebrated favourites the meter resembling a minuet. The opening still in the dotted rhythm, sounding symphonic finale with its light, playful, and world over. concludes with additional subsections, sparsely in the strings. The previous two often dance-like spirit, the latter quality 4 5 Franck, however, did not live to enjoy is dominated by a foreboding three-note main theme and the «Faith Theme». The touch with cyclic form: the frequently the work’s stunning popular success. The figure, which alludes to the «Fate Motif» latter seems to gain the upper hand, but repeated first three notes replicate the 1889 premiere did not go over well at the from Wagner’s Ring, the opening of Liszt’s at the recapitulation the foreboding slow foreboding motif from the first movement, relatively conservative Société des Concerts apocalyptic Les Préludes, and the «Muss es introduction returns (another unusual now ingeniously re-harmonized. So too du Conservatoire, as the celebrated writer sein?» (Must it be?) incipit of Beethoven’s twist in the form) with great force, now does the slow movement’s next element, Romain Rolland reported: a small handful String Quartet op. 135. The same figure, doubled up in a strict canon. The «Faith a sweetly tranquil, major-mode tune in of attendees, mostly Franck’s devotees, rhythmically energized and in a faster Theme» again counters and the movement the violins, which derives from the «Faith applauded frenetically; a larger number tempo, suffuses the urgent main theme, concludes with a surge of D major, but the Theme». The central scherzo features a protested audibly and made displays of accompanied by anguished stomps in the conflict between darkness and light seems nimble and unpredictable violin obbligato plugging their ears; while most listeners winds and brass. The movement then takes unresolved. accompanied by the English horn melody’s remained indifferent. The symphony only an unusual formal turn: the entire slow plucked chord progression and hints of the began its rise to fame when performed in introduction and fast main theme repeat in Franck cast the middle movement as a tune itself. This little scherzo even includes 1893 – three years after Franck’s death – at the key of F minor, before two subordinate hybrid: the outer sections sound like a a miniature trio, with a gently lilting the Concerts Lamoureux, Paris’s hotspot for themes, a soft melody in the violins and slow movement, while the central section clarinet melody accompanied by sustained Wagner’s music and a venue sympathetic a big tune in the trumpets and strings, assumes the character of a scherzo (the harmonies in the winds. When the English to the symphony’s rich orchestral textures, follow in F major. This repeat heightens two link seamlessly: one beat of the former horn theme returns, the nimble violin intensely chromatic harmony, and general the drama by prolonging the minor-key becomes a triple-time measure of the obbligato and the lilting clarinet tune join gravitas. darkness and intensifying the arrival of the latter). Franck’s three-movement symphony it, material from the scherzo and trio now major. Franck underscores the contrast: the thereby references all four of the genre’s integrated into the slow movement. Like many nineteenth-century symphonies, boisterous big tune – which Franck’s student characteristic movement types. The slow Franck’s pursues the darkness-to-light Guy Ropartz called the «Faith Theme» – movement reverts to the minor mode. The In the finale, a radiant D major decisively narrative design of Beethoven’s Fifth and repeatedly emphasizes the third note of English horn, accompanied by harp and vanquishes the minor-mode foreboding Ninth, progressing from a troubled D minor the scale, the pitch defining the difference plucked strings, sounds the main theme, and darkness.