Franck Organ Works

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Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: César Franck

Label: Classics

Magazine Review Date: 3/1991

Media Format: Cassette

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 791193-4

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
(3) Pièces, Movement: Cantabile in B	César Franck, Composer César Franck, Composer Nicholas Danby, Organ
(3) Pièces, Movement: Pièce héroïque in B minor	César Franck, Composer César Franck, Composer Nicholas Danby, Organ
(3) Chorales	César Franck, Composer César Franck, Composer Nicholas Danby, Organ
(L') Organiste, Volume 1, Movement: Poco allegretto	César Franck, Composer César Franck, Composer Nicholas Danby, Organ
(L') Organiste, Volume 1, Movement: Vieux Noël: Andantino	César Franck, Composer César Franck, Composer Nicholas Danby, Organ
(L') Organiste, Volume 1, Movement: Maestoso	César Franck, Composer César Franck, Composer Nicholas Danby, Organ
(L') Organiste, Volume 1, Movement: Vieux Noël: Maestoso	César Franck, Composer César Franck, Composer Nicholas Danby, Organ
(L') Organiste, Volume 1, Movement: Offertoire or Communion in E minor	César Franck, Composer César Franck, Composer Nicholas Danby, Organ
(L') Organiste, Volume 1, Movement: Noël angévin: Allegretto	César Franck, Composer César Franck, Composer Nicholas Danby, Organ

Author: Marc Rochester

Of particular interest here are six pieces from L'organiste, a collection of 59 pieces (Franck originally intended there to be 91, seven in each key) which he wrote during the last years of his life. Here are bite-size morsels of Franck at his finest; harmonically imaginative, melodically fluent and utterly charming. Despite the title these were not written for the great Cavaille-Coll organs (of which this 1855 instrument in Notre-Dame de Saint-Omer is a classic example) but for an instrument then in far more common usage; the harmonium. The instrument may have fallen completely out of fashion today, but that's no excuse for its music being ignored, and it is regrettable that all the 'complete' recordings of Franck's organ works have largely ignored his substantial output for the harmonium.
All praise then to Nicholas Danby not only for committing several of the pieces to record but also for giving them such fine and sympathetic performances. The softer ones provide an ideal opportunity to explore the gentler aspects of the organ, but there is substance and power enough in others, especially the majestic setting of the well-known ''Noel Suisse'' (No. 6), to belie the smallness of their stature.
As for the 'big' organ works, Danby's performances are solid enough. They may lack the fire of Guillou's (Dorian/Conifer (CD) DOR90135, 6/90) or the powerful authority of Murray's (Telarc/Conifer (CD) CD80234, 7/90) but his playing, and the organ he is using, have all the right characteristics to produce a sound which is archetypically Franckian: this isn't, perhaps, quite the unreserved commendation it might seem. There are some very indistinct pedal notes (the G sharps in bars 102 and 104 of Piece heroique, for example) and the very audible action noise is rather more of a distraction here than in the pieces from L'organiste. The quaver chords at the start of Piece heroique in particular are uncomfortably emphasized by our hearing not just the notes, but also the full progress from fingers to pipes relayed in such intimate detail. But these are minor points, and do not in any way detract from Danby's careful and faithful realization of Franck's writing.'