Don’t forget Franck

Robin Holloway on César Franck

Once so sure in the pantheon, esteemed by composers and critical taste, beloved by players and audiences, César Franck appears nowadays to be almost universally reviled. Of the late handful of indubitable masterpieces, only the Violin Sonata still enjoys the affection, admiration and performances previously accorded the Piano Quintet, the Symphony, the Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra, and the two sizable cycles for piano alone. Organists still adhere to the Chorales and other sticky products of this master of the instrument, the sole composer since Bach to give it a genuine œuvre, till joined by his successor Messaien. There was never much of a future for Franck’s two operas; but what about a likelier genre in the two oratorios? And, above all, that towering final incandescent String Quartet, masterly and masterful, adored by Proust and principal model for the symbolic Septet in his novel?