Cesar Franck: Pieces pour harmonium

CÉSAR FRANCK – FROM HARMONIUM TO ACCORDION
Pieces pour harmonium (1890), published under the title L'Organiste (1892)
transferred to the accordion (Doris Bertschinger, 2019)

Five cycles of seven pieces each in the keys C to E in ascending chromatic order

Anyone who knows the great works of the great masters usually has no idea of ​​the miniatures or secondary and occasional works that they also produced. And so it can happen that the Sibelius enthusiast is disappointed with the piano pieces after experiencing the symphonies and the Beethoven friend is surprised at their trifles, even if nothing fundamental is said about the quality. It could be the same for some here with César Franck, who with his only symphony and his magnificent Symphonic variations, the powerful piano quartet, the violin sonata (his most successful work to date) and the string quartet created imperishable masterpieces of outstanding stature. His piano and organ music also includes impressive works of large format. But who knows his miniature cycle L'Organiste for organ or harmonium, this clearly planned, unfinished late work as a whole?

The long road to full development

César Franck was born in December 1822 in what was then Liège in the Netherlands, which from 1830 became part of the newly founded Belgian state under Leopold I, for whom Franck auditioned at the age of 12. Franck's mother was German, which in times when particular importance was attached to racial origin should lead to a grotesque appropriation of his work for German purposes (see the 1942 published biography "Cäsar Franck" by Wilhelm Mohr, which is still the main source of information to Franck in German forms). Franck's father Nicolas-Joseph, who was a private individual, dreamed of his two sons, César (piano) and Joseph (violin) pursuing virtuoso careers à la Liszt or Vieuxtemps, for which the training in Liège was not very suitable. In 1835 he moved to Paris, where César Franck spent ten months, until his death, studying counterpoint with the exquisite master, legendary fugue experimenter and Beethoven contemporary Anton Reicha (1770-1836) and studying piano with Pierre Zimmerman. Later he also learned to play the organ with François Benoist and quickly acquired a high level of skill as an improviser. In 1841 he composed his early piano trios, the first of which became a lasting success. However, in 1842 the Franck family moved back to Belgium, where César met Franz Liszt, who held him in high esteem. In 1844 César gave up his father's plan to become a renowned traveling virtuoso, fell out with his father and finally went to Paris. The most important work of the early Paris period is the oratorio, completed in 1846 Ruth. He married his piano student Félicité Saillot in 1848 after becoming second organist at Notre-Dame-de-Lorrette. In 1853 he was promoted to chief organist at Saint-Jean-Saint-François-au-Marais, where he had at his disposal a wonderful new organ made by Grand Master Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. Franck now gained nationwide fame as a phenomenal improviser, which also led to him later being compared again and again to his contemporary Anton Bruckner. Cavaillé-Coll thought highly of Franck and regularly asked him to demonstrate his new organs throughout France.

In 1858 Franck became titular organist at Sainte-Clotilde, a position he held until his death in November 1890. This organ was considered the best of Cavaillé-Coll's workshop and it was here that Franck was able to mature his style. His most important organ works are the 6 Parts op. 16–21 (1860–62, below Prelude, Fugue et Variations op. 18), the 3 pieces from 1878 (including the Fantaisie heroique) and the 3 chorals from 1890.

In 1872 Franck was appointed professor of organ at the Paris Conservatoire, succeeding his former teacher Benoist, for which he accepted French citizenship. He exerted an immense influence on the younger generation of composers with his seriousness, his skill and the inspired grace of his work. Apart from his self-declared standard-bearer Vincent d'Indy, the founder of the Schola Cantorum, his students include such important masters as Ernest Chausson, Gabriel Pierné, Henri Duparc, Guy Ropartz, Maurice Emmanuel, Guillaume Lekeu, Louis Vierne and Charles Tournemire (the latter two became leading exponents of the French organ school of the dawning modern age). Now the works on which his timeless fame is based were also created: the Poème symphony Redemption (1872), the tone poem Les Éolides (1876), the great oratorio Les Beatitudes (1869–79), the piano quintet (1879), the tone poem Le Chasseur maudit (1882), the tone poem Les Djinns for piano and orchestra and Prelude, Choral et Fugue for piano solo (1884), the opera Hulda (1882–85), the Symphonic variations for piano and orchestra (1885), the Sonata for violin and piano in A major for Eugène Ysaÿe (1886), Prelude, Aria and Finale for piano solo, the Poème symphony Psyche and the Symphony in D minor (1886–88) as well as the String Quartet in D major (1889)

The Pieces pour harmonium

Already in 1858-66 Franck had a Offertory and 5 Parts for harmonium, then 44 more Petits pieces Composed for organ or harmonium, about which his son Georges reported that his father had written it for use in church services for a longtime student who was now the village organist. According to the current state of knowledge, these pieces, which were only published posthumously, are assigned to the organ on the basis of an obbligato pedal and various registration details. These, on the other hand, are clearly composed for the harmonium Offer to a Noël Breton and Almost Marcia from 1867 and 1868 respectively.

After that, more than two decades passed before Franck, in the last two years of his life, began a project for harmonium that remained unfinished only because of his death: a cycle of harmonium pieces that was to comprise twelve suites of 7 pieces in all twelve keys. The posthumous publication of the unfinished cycle of 59 pieces to be performed on either the organ or the harmonium bears the title L'Organiste, Pièces pour Orgue-Harmonium by Cesar Franck. The key sequence of the 7-note cycles begins in semitones in C major and C minor, followed by D flat major and C sharp minor, D major and D minor, E flat major and E flat minor, E major and E flat. minor, F major and F minor, F sharp minor and G flat major as well as G major and G minor, thus encompassing the slim majority of the keys and ending with the unfinished cycle of three pieces in A flat major on the minor sixth . The fact that Franck was unable to complete the work is another good argument against the need to perform the cycle in its entirety, since a complete impression cannot be achieved anyway. All cycles of 7 are similar in that six cute miniatures are followed by a more extensive final piece that is compositionally more demanding and more individual in terms of its formation. As a rule, a short »amen« of 3–5 bars is inserted between the sixth piece and the finale, but not in the 3rd cycle in D. Although the music represents the Franck style with maximum simplicity, each of these miniatures speaks of the unmistakable individuality of César Franck, especially with regard to the syncopation of the melody and the harmonics, which vary, play around and shift the basic levels with the greatest elegance. The dynamic and characteristic contrasts push the limits of what is possible in terms of the modest possibilities of the instrument with its soft, warm tones.

Well into the 20th century, the accordion was neglected when it came to compositions by the great masters, and so it made sense to transfer this cycle to the instrument. Of course, the timbres are sharper and the whole character is more extroverted than on the harmonium, but the essentials can be transferred with a sensitive and style-conscious execution. Due to the smaller range in the lower range, some part-writings have to be raised in octaves, but this does not change the basic impression. And the typical Franck symbiosis of sacred mysticism and lovely catchy, sometimes touching the chanson-like, almost Clochard-like charming folksy, is even underlined here.

Doris Bertschinger notes:

»In my interpretation, it is important to me to consider and point out similarities and similarities between the two instruments, harmonium and accordion.
On the one hand, there is the identical tone generation and the very similar tonal design possibilities, on the other hand, the harmonium with only one manual, but one with separate registers, is opposed to the two-manual accordion. The latter can only be played with the same hand on one manual, whereas the harmonium can be played with the same hand below and above the division, resulting in other playing possibilities.
There are also differences in the registration options and in the tonal range. The absence of the contra-Eb, D, C sharp and C on the accordion, for example, makes it impossible to interpret the pitch correctly in several movements. Although in some cases I deliberately play in octaves for tonal reasons. Another challenge is the implementation of the speed information. Because the individual Parts are sometimes very short, it is important to me to play the cycles as a kind of suite.
Even during my studies, they enabled me Pieces pour harmonium, as Franck himself called them, and to inspire their interpretation on the accordion.
With this recording I would like to introduce César Franck's work as well as the classical accordion and its possibilities to a wide audience
make."

Christoph Schlüren, January 2021