Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 10/29/2009, uploaded on 10/29/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

A renewed interest in the organ was kindled during the Romantic period, spanning roughly a century beginning in 1830, and music for the instrument experience a sort of second coming at the more than capable hands of César Franck. Franck was an admirer of the music of Bach and he alone perhaps has earned the honor of being considered that great man’s equal in composing for the organ. In 1858, he was appointed as organist at the newly-consecrated Sainte-Clotilde, where he remained until his death. Not long after his appointment, construction on a new three-manual grand organ was completed. This organ presented both an artistic challenge and source of inspiration for Franck. Indeed, it shaped the direction of many of his later works and directly inspired the composition of the Six Pièces, likely composed during 1858-64, yet not published until 1868.

Third in this set of organ works is the Prélude, fugue et variation, op. 18, one of Franck’s most recognizable works. Like his Prélude, choral et fugue of some years later, the selection of the archaic prelude and fugue form places the piece in the headwinds of the growing influence of Wagner and Liszt, a delightful anachronism bearing witness that the old forms were not completely dead and yet had room for a breath a new life—a sentiment in which echoes can be found in pieces such a Johannes Brahms’s 11 Chorale Preludes. Set in the haunting key of B minor, the prelude opens with a pastoral tune whose lyricism dominates the entirety of this opening movement. A terse and dramatic chorale separates the prelude from the stern and determined fugue that follows. The fugue concludes on a dominant pedal and its unresolved cadence transitions effortlessly into a return of the prelude. In this reprise, the prelude’s melody is enhanced by the addition of a florid counterpoint below it and brings the piece to a conclusion in the tonic major.      Joseph DuBose