Les Djinns

It is very interesting, but also quite a shock, to play the contents of this disc in the wrong order. What a born Franckian Ashkenazy is, one thinks, listening to his account of Les Djinns and admiring both the boldness of outline and colour in the orchestral sections and the long-breathed nobility of phrasing that he brings to the piano theme that calms the music's turbulence. And the impression is redoubled by his voluptuous reading of Psyche (of its four orchestral movements, that is; the choral ones are as usual omitted, though Decca puzzlingly print Franck's synopsis of them in the accompanying booklet). What a fine control of sustained, arching line and of slowly built crescendo and, in the fourth movement, what a shrewd understanding of how much sensuality underlays Franck's image of pater seraphicus!

François-Xavier Roth, not this time with his ‘period’ ensemble Les Siècles but with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, conducts a performance of César Franck’s Le chasseur maudit that has dramatic thrust, demonic intensity and clearly defined textural detail as well. There is a very real sense, in listening to this performance, that Roth and his orchestra have the dark narrative in their very blood, so that its frenzy, its tensions and the cursed hunter’s wild chase towards death come vividly before the mind’s eye.

Eight days remaining before César Franck’s awaited bicentenary! Here is a throwback to his major pieces, as Aldo Ciccolini teams up with André Cluytens in the two masterpieces for piano and orchestra, Les Djinns and the Variations symphoniques. Both were favorite works for the pianist who performed them intensely and would record again with Paul Strauss. They are coupled with a fiery version of Tchaikovsky’s concerto and feature the National Belgium Orchestra and the Paris Conservatory Orchestra.

This album is a well-thought-out program devoted to Romantic composer César Franck, who we don’t hear enough. The two piano solos, the Prélude, choral et fugue (1884) and the Prelude, Aria and Finale (1886-1887), find Franck favoring the tripartite form he loved, revealing a superbly expressive composer for the piano (he was an organist by profession). Tanguy de Williencourt gets under their skin and plays with poetry (the Choral is lovely) and real sweep. Joined by orchestra for the “Symphonic Variations,” he spreads his wings and gives a very impressive performance, while the slightly spooky “Les Djinns” is full of atmosphere.