César Franck bicentennial celebrated with a pair of his best-known works

Mark Gresham | 10 OCT 2022

The city of Liège lies at the confluence of the rivers Meuse and Ourthe in modern-day eastern Belgium, not far from that country’s borders with Germany and The Netherlands. Two hundred years ago, Liège was part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. That ended in 1830 when the Belgian Revolution led to an independent Belgium. Liège developed rapidly into a significant industrial city, part of the sillon industriel, the former industrial backbone of Wallonia, with iron and steel foundries, glassworks, coal mines, armament factories, and copper refineries, and one of the most important river ports in western Europe with a strong working-class character.

César Franck (photo by Pierre_Petit)

The Liège that immediately preceded the Belgian era was also the birthplace of French Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and teacher César-Auguste Jean-Guillaume Hubert Franck, born on December 10, 1822.

Franck gave his first concerts in Liège in 1834, then went to Paris to study the following year. He returned briefly to Belgium, then relocated back to Paris for good, where he launched his career, becoming organist at the Basilica of St. Clotilde, Paris, in 1858, a position he held for the rest of his life. He later became a French national.

This past Friday, Concerts@First and the Atlanta Chapter of the American Guild of Organists came together to present a concert celebrating the bicentennial birth year of César Franck with a program that included two of his best-known works, both written late in the composer’s life.

Violinist David Coucheron and pianist Julie Coucheron opened the program with Franck’s Violin Sonata in A Major.

The Sonata was composed in 1886, when César Franck was 63, as a wedding present for the 28-year-old violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. It is a significant piece of the core violin repertoire and often appears on recital programs (perhaps even too often at times), heard also in various transcriptions for cello, flute, and other instruments although Franck himself had only approved the cello transcription by the renowned cellist Jules Delsart as an alternative to the original for violin. The work is cyclic in structure, with all four movements sharing common thematic materials that transform as the music progresses. The piano part is notably challenging for chamber repertoire, particularly the second movement.

The performance by the Coucheron siblings was splendid. Warm, fluid, and full of emotion without being overbearing. It stands at the top of the live performances I’ve heard in the last handful of years.

Franck is unquestionably a cornerstone of the French organ tradition. His Trois Chorals pour grand orgue, written in the final year of his life, serve as the pinnacle of his legacy and represent mastery of motivic development. Although the chorale preludes of Bach inspired Franck, these three “chorals” are more fantasias suited to concert performance than religious service music due to their size and scope. Instead of traditional hymns, they use an original, freely composed melody that Franck unveils gradually.

Organist Jens Korndörfer performs Franck’s “Trois Chorals” on the sanctuary organ at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. (credit: Julia Dokter)

The Trois Chorals were performed after intermission by organist Jens Korndörfer, Director of Worship and the Arts at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. He had most recently performed the complete set of Franck’s Chorals this past summer on tour in Norway, Denmark, and France, plus Choral No. 3 alone in several other recitals this year.

Playing his “home” instrument in Friday’s concert at First Presbyterian (organ specs listed below), Korndörfer drew forth a wealth of color from the solemn and profound work, communicating exceptionally well the strongly religious expression that characterizes them. ■

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EXTERNAL LINKS:

• David and Julie Coucheron: davidandjuliecoucheron.com
• Jens Korndörfer: jenskorndoerfer.com/
• Concerts @ First: concertsatfirst.org
• Atlanta Chapter of the American Guild of Organists: agoatlanta.org

Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. he began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.

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