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Wednesday, June 24, 2020

César Franck - Symphony; Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne; Hulda (Christian Arming)


Information

Composer: César Franck
  • (01) Symphony in D minor
  • (04) Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne, Op. 13
  • (05) Hulda, Ballet allégorique

Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège
Christian Arming, conductor

Date: 2012
Label: Fuga Libera
https://outhere-music.com/en/albums/symphonie-en-re-mineur-ce-qu-on-entend-sur-la-montagne-hulda-ballet-allegorique-fug-596

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

César Franck remains perhaps the most unknown of all the great composers. He wrote operas, oratorios, symphonic poems, and chamber music throughout his life, but except for the few late works virtually all of it languishes in obscurity. Then there are the organ works, the finest of their kind since Bach, which remain the province primarily of organists. I have to confess, I am often no fan of organ music generally, but Franck’s music for the instrument really does have the power to cross over and give pleasure even to the most hard core doubters.

This splendid disc features music you probably haven’t ever heard. The tone poem Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne (What One Hears on the Mountain) dates from 1947, predating Liszt’s first symphonic poem of the same title by two or three years. It may thus be the very first symphonic poem in history, and it’s beautiful. The very opening, with its high violins and suspended cymbals, is an astonishing piece of orchestration for its date, far more sophisticated than anything that Liszt or Wagner were doing at the time (the work is contemporary with Tannhäuser). Franck’s musical ideas are more striking than Liszt’s, his structure more cohesive over virtually the same span of time–about 25 minutes. It was recorded at least once previously, for Koch, but this performance is clearly superior both as playing and sound.

Hulda was Franck’s last completed opera, and the ballet music, an allegorical “four seasons” type of scenario, is just good French dance music of the period, enriched by some typically Franckian harmonic spice. Laid out in five shapely movements, I offer samples of the second (Winter’s Dance), with its gorgeous lyrical writing, and the boisterous finale. As you will hear for yourself, the playing and recorded sound are excellent in all respects. Christian Arming leads Franck’s home town forces in audibly committed interpretations, which is a good thing because you also get yet another recording of the inevitable Symphony in D minor.

Happily, it’s also one of the best to come out in recent years. Arming paces this tricky piece just about perfectly. The first movement, in particular, has no dead spots whatsoever. The central allegretto finds exactly the right point of balance between andante and scherzo, and the finale has plenty of excitement, with a powerfully built coda enhanced by Arming’s directness of expression and firm pulse. This important release is sure to give great pleasure, and it deserves a place in every serious collection.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/franck-symphony-in-d-minor
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Apr13/Franck_symphonie_FUG596.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Symphony-D-Minor-Franck/dp/B0092YHFH6

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César Franck (10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life. As an organist he was particularly noted for his skill in improvisation. Franck is considered by many the greatest composer of organ music after Bach. Franck exerted a significant influence on music. He helped to renew and reinvigorate chamber music and developed the use of cyclic form. He became professor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1872, his pupils included Vincent d'Indy, Ernest Chausson, Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, Guillaume Lekeu and Henri Duparc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9sar_Franck

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Christian Arming (born 18 March 1971, Vienna) is an Austrian conductor. He studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where his conducting teachers included Leopold Hager. Arming was an assistant conductor to Seiji Ozawa and counts Ozawa as a conducting mentor. His first orchestral post was as chief conductor of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, Ostrava, from 1996 to 2002. He was subsequently chief conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra (2002-04), music director of the New Japan Philharmonic (2003-13), and music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège (2011-19).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Arming

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