CESAR FRANCK (1822 – 1890)

Right, I can hear you say. César Franck was Belgian. So what is he doing in a series on French composers. Got it in one. Oh dear! So let’s get that out of the way first. True, Franck was born in Liège which in 1822 happened to be then part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Belgium only became a newly founded kingdom in 1830. So he was Dutch to start with. However, he was naturalized French…twice you might note . He was taken to France by his father when he was fourteen (1836) to be entered into the Conservatoire. But one had to be French for that. So his father became naturalized for himself and for César-Auguste and his brother. Much later in 1872, Franck was proposed as organ professor at the Conservatoire. The nomination exposed the embarrassing fact that Franck was not a French citizen, a requirement for the appointment. It turned out that Franck did not know that when his father had naturalized him on that earlier occasion he was only counted as a citizen until twenty-one at which age he had to opt to declare his allegiance to France as an adult. Franck had always regarded himself as French from that earlier time and he had not realized that he had reverted to Belgian nationality at his majority. So he went through the naturalization process a second time, what Oscar Wilde might well have described as a habit. Franck was therefore as French as Handel was English. Handel had been naturalised by Act of Parliament but only the once. Franck, did it twice. He became as French as the Tour de France. Maybe that’s why he developed the cyclic form of composition. Belgian he might have been once but he was no Eddie Merckx.

When one writes of a composer we usually trace a career from childhood to middle age and from middle age, if they get that far, to old age. With Franck it was different. The early promise did not materialize and his middle development would have only been of interest to organ enthusiasts. It was only when approaching 60 that he emerged out of nowhere as a mature composer, a cult figure with a youthful following.

 César Franck, in full César-Auguste Franck was born of a Walloon father and a mother of German descent. Later he would drop the Auguste as César and Auguste was somewhat too pretentiously imperial. He showed unmistakable musical gifts that enabled him to enter the Liège conservatory at the age of eight, and his progress as a pianist was so astonishing that in 1834 his father took him on tour and a year later dispatched him to Paris, where he worked with the Bohemian composer Anton Reicha and one time boyhood friend of Beethoven . In 1836 the whole Franck family, including the younger son Joseph, who played the violin, moved to Paris, and in 1837 César Franck entered the Paris Conservatory. Within a year he was winning prizes including first prize for fugue (1840) and second prize for organ (1841) which importantly he began studying that year. As a result his compositions became noticeably more serious.

 By then Franck was preparing to compete for the Prix de Rome, a prize offered yearly in Paris for study in Rome. However his ambitious father had other plans and was determined on a virtuoso’s career for both him and his violinist brother. His father therefore got him to leave the conservatoire in order to give concerts and hoping to earn much-needed money. The programmes he and his brother gave were mainly devoted to performing his own fantasias and operatic potpourris. Whilst Franck’s technical abilities as a pianist were acknowledged, his abilities as a composer were (probably justly at this point) felt to be wanting. Increasingly his father’s promotion of his sons antagonized the Parisian critics and there were quarrels between some of them and Franck senior. One does not know the reason but the father found it necessary to leave Paris post haste and return to Liege in 1842.The return to Belgium lasted less than two years and it was in those two years that Franck achieved his majority and unknowingly lost his French citizenship. No profitable concerts arose; critics were indifferent; patronage was not forthcoming and there was no money to be made. The prodigal return was a failure, and the family returned to Paris with some low-paying concerts and some low paying teaching. From this period emerged the first mature compositions, a set of piano trios. which were seen and taken up by Liszt. In 1843, Franck began work on his an oratorio, Ruth. It was privately premiered in 1845 before Liszt, Meyerbeer, and other musical notables, who gave moderate approval but a public performance in early 1846 met with indifference and critical snubs. The work was not performed again until 1872, and then only after considerable revision.

Unwilling concert giving, with bad press notices, and the teaching needed led to stress between him and his pushy father. This was made worse when Franck fell in love with an actress by the name of Félicité Saillot and who was his pupil, but because both her parents also worked in the theatre, the family was regarded as unsuitable by the elder Franck. This led to the son leaving home to live with his fiancee’s parents until marrying her in 1848. After his marriage Franck’s way of life changed little for his remaining 42 years. He earned his livelihood as an organist and teacher and led a simple, almost ascetic life. Thus it was being an organist which determined the course of his musical career but he was not your common or garden Sunday organist. His talents in the field got him head hunted. In 1851 he was appointed organist to the Church of Saint-Jean-Saint-François whose curé Abbé Dancel, on himself being promoted in 1858, took Franck with him to that of Sainte-Clotilde, where he was already choirmaster. From the organ loft of Sainte-Clotilde came the improvisations for which he was to become famous and also their elaboration in organ and choral works. Franck’s fame as an organist was as an improviser and seen as second only to J S Bach. For all his renown in the field of organ composition his total written output is contained on just two CD’s

 More important to Franck’s career as a composer was his appointment as organ professor at the Paris Conservatory in 1872, which came to him as a surprise. His general lack of sophistication were to make his colleagues hostile and to create a friendly following among his pupils. This enmity was increased by the fact that his organ classes soon became classes of composition, and his pupils not infrequently proved superior to those of the conventional composition professors.

 A nucleus of a school of disciples led by Ernest Chausson had already begun to form around Franck to pursue a more national style which he interested in writing and communicated to his pupils. When Vincent d’Indy, a French composer, joined the group of Franck’s pupils in 1872, he brought an enthusiasm, a propagandist zeal, and an exclusive personal devotion that played a large place in restoring Franck’s confidence in his powers. It was more Franck under the influence of his pupils than vice versa. He was seen as a lover of Wagner and more remotely related back to Beethoven. In mood he is more akin to Brahms but adapting these influences to a French connection such as cor anglais and harps in the second movement of his symphony. His wife was somewhat sceptical of the course he was following and tensions grew between her and the groupies who extolled him.

 As a composer Franck emerged and fulfilled his potential only in the last 10 years (1880–90) of his life. His Symphony in D Minor (1888), Symphonic Variations(1885), Piano Quintet in F Minor (1879), String Quartet in D Major (1889), Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano (1886), and several organ pieces mark him as one of the most powerful French composers in the second half of the 19th century. His music is marked by soaring, dark colours and almost improvisatory melodic flights. There is no trace of the likes of Massenet or Offenbach or the can-can school of composition. The symphony is dark and brooding, a more Germanic sound, but its main theme is wonderfully life enhancing. The second movement was claimed to sound French and original with cor anglais accompanied by harps. Not quite so original bearing in mind Berlioz had harps prominent in “Un Bal” the second movement of the Symphonie Fantastique and the cor anglais leading the show in Scène aux Champs, the third movement. The Symphonic Variations were more popular in the 1950’s than today but it is a captivating short work. The opening seems filched from the slow movement of Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto, starting with gruff strings which are similarly calmed down by the piano bringing about a middle section which is as dreamy as Chopin.

 Franck died, partly as the result of a street accident, in 1890. The new seriousness of French music in the last quarter of the 19th century came about from him and his pupils. Much has been made of his simplicity of character, his selflessness and innocence in the ways of the world. These traits could be said to reflect in his compositional style in lack at times of strongly contrasting musical ideas. His music does at times lack development as in the symphony which according to cyclic form reverts to earlier movements rather than developing and analyzing his current themes. On the other hand, the Violin Sonata and the Symphonic Variations remain inspirational and almost improvisatory in manner reflecting a unique musical and, yes, a thorough craftsmanship.

 

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CHARLES GOUNOD 1818 – 1893

Charles Gounod should perhaps be given a special mention to start this Matthew Taylor series if only because he could be said to be one of us. He was for a time a Blackheathen of the Early Cator Age having lived from 1870 to 1874 at 17 Morden Road, Blackheath following the Franco Prussian war. A blue plaque is to be seen on the house where he lived close by the Plantation. But for the time difference which separates us Charles could have been a member of our group! Of the composers that Matthew is likely to deal with he would be the earliest. Too early perhaps for our study as his best was passed him by 1870.

 So what do we know about him? One American website summarizes him thus:-

Born: 17 June 1818

Birthplace: Paris, France

Died: 18 October 1893

Location of death: Saint Cloud, France

Cause of death: unspecified

Remains: Buried, Cimetière d’Auteuil, Paris, France

Gender: Male

Race or Ethnicity: White

Sexual orientation: Straight

Occupation: Composer

Born at St Cloud in 1818 he is only 15 years younger than Berlioz and less than 10 years younger than Mendelssohn and Schumann. Wagner was born but five years earlier. Gounod père was a painter and architect of some distinction who himself had won the Prix de Rome in his own field. Charles’ mother was his first piano teacher. His first great musical impression was when he was taken at the age of thirteen to hear Rossini’s opera “Otello”. Mozart had a greater effect and after hearing Don Giovanni it was Mozart who remained Gounod’s ideal throughout his career. Other works which he heard at this period and which left lasting effects upon him were Beethoven’s Pastoral and Ninth Symphonies. Today we take for granted whole cycles of Beethoven symphonies being played and recorded that we cannot recall the rare treat of just savouring the opportunity to hear two or three such symphonies as and when the opportunity arose. After the Lycée, he was sent to the Conservatoire, where he entered the theory classes of Reicha and Lesueur both previous teachers of Berlioz

In 1839, he won the Prix de Rome which took him to the Villa Medici in Rome for four years followed by a year in Vienna. During his stay in Italy, Gounod studied the music of Palestrina and other sacred works of the sixteenth century and had a pronounced leaning towards religion and religious works. In 1842 he returned to Paris and was soon appointed choirmaster at the church of the Missions Etrangères, a position which he held for almost five years. He, like many of the other composers of this period, advanced through his ability at the organ. In 1845 he actually decided to take up the priesthood and entered a seminary for two terms. He would eventually reject this plan and marry, but he did remain religious throughout his life and wrote many sacred works, including masses, his launching pad as a composer of note being the popular 1855 St. Cecilia Mass. In that year Gounod also composed his two symphonies, which got some attention but no lasting success and hardly get a performance these days. His Symphony No. 1 in D major is said to have been the inspiration for the Symphony in C composed later that same year by the 17 year old Bizet who was then Gounod’s student.

 It was Fanny Mendelssohn,  sister of the composer, who introduced Gounod to the keyboard music of J. S. Bach. He came to revere Bach and was later inspired to devise an improvisation of a melody over the C major Prelude from the collection’s first book. Effectively, by converting each arpeggio into a chord he produced a melody. To this melody Gounod fitted the words of the Ave Maria resulting in a setting that became world-famous.

However, bearing in mind Gounod’s religious devotion, the route he chose to achieve popular success was a volte face, excuse my French. In his autobiography he confided.

 “For a composer, there is but one road to follow in order to make a name, and that is the operatic stage. Opera is the place where one finds the opportunity and the way to speak every day to the public; it is a daily and permanent display opened to the musician. Religious music and the symphony are certainly of a higher order, abstractly considered, than dramatic music, but the opportunities and the means of making one’s self known along those lines are rare and appeal only to an intermittent public rather than to a regular public like that of the opera”.

 His first opera, Sapho in 1851, was a commercial failure. He had no great operatic success until Faust his fourth opera, in 1859. This remains the composition for which he is best known although it took some time to achieve popularity and was revised in 1869. In fact it was often performed in Italian in some opera houses, like New York as mentioned by Edith Wharton in “The Age of Innocence”. Gounod’s Faust owes little to La Damnation de Faust by Berlioz which was written as a musical legend to be performed in the concert hall although to all intents and purposes an opera all the same. The Berlioz is more dramatic and spine chilling. The Gounod captured its audience with its own particular sentimental brand and has become one of the most frequently staged operas of all time.

 His Romeo and Juliet from 1867, is revived now and then but has never come close to matching Faust’s in popularity. Mireille is another admired by connoisseurs but hardly performed. The other Gounod operas – there were 13 in all – have fallen into oblivion.

 1870 was a significant a year in French history, like 1914 or 1939. The emperor, Napoleon III, wishing to see himself as a chip off the avuncular block, decided he would give a lesson to Germany and personally lead his troops into battle at Sedan. There he was defeated and ignominiously taken prisoner. Thus did the Second Empire fall. The Franco Prussian war was a humbling event for France and a number of artists, writers and composers left France for the better comfort of London. Monet came to London as did Pissaro who was technically Danish by nationality. Victor Hugo on the other hand was not one of this group. He had gone into exile much earlier in 1855 settling first in Jersey and later in Guernsey, his opposition being with the Empire. The events following 1870 allowed him to take the return trip to France. Gounod came to Mordern Road to avoid financial exigency and spent five years in Blackheath.

On 28th March 1871, the Royal Albert Hall was officially opened. The event was marked by an inaugural concert given by, among others, the Sacred Harmonic Society. Three months later, the RAH was the setting for yet another concert to mark the beginning of an international exhibition. This largely choral event was conducted by Charles Gounod and was the occasion of the foundation of the choir, first known as the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society but later to become The Royal Choral Society. Its first conductor was therefore none other than Charles Gounod. It was a well-received performance heard by a distinguished audience led by Queen Victoria. A reviewer for the Musical Times questioned M. Gounod’s appointment as director of an English choir!

Now up till then it seems that Gounod had led a pretty respectable life with no evidence of his playing away or keeping the odd mistress. But in respectable England, opportunity knocked for Gounod as it had previously done for Haydn, may be something to do with the air in Greenwich and Blackheath. We will never know whether Gounod cashed in on his luck or not. Following his Albert Hall success Gounod got himself entangled with an amateur English singer Georgina Weldon a relationship, probably platonic, was struck up and ended in great acrimony and embittered litigation. Forgive me now for going off at a tangent but this story is too good not to be told and I have therefore added a postlude on Georgina. What you read there could well have been the basis of a plot for an opera but Offenbach may be more likely to come to mind than Gounod.

Let us now return to the conventional world of Charles Gounod, safe within the bosom of his family in France. He now returned to his early religious impulses, writing much sacred music. He had written his Marche Pontificale in 1869 and which eventually, in 1949, was to become the official national anthem of the Vatican City. I cannot say that I know it, not having heard it played at any medal ceremony in any Olympic Games.

From 1882 there followed numerous oratorios and liturgical works including his oratorio, “The Redemption”, his “Messe de Pâques”, “Messe du Sacré Cœur” and “Messe des Orphéonistes. The Redemption was dedicated to Queen Victoria and went down well in England. The production of large scale liturgical works was a feature of the nineteenth century from Germany to England, from Mendelssohn to Elgar and Gounod was a child of his time and of the France of the mid to late nineteenth century.

 In 1887 in his religious zeal he stated that he wanted to compose his Messe à la mémoire de Jeanne d’Arc whilst kneeling on the stone on which Joan of Arc knelt at the coronation of Charles VII. This work offers certain peculiarities, being written for soloists, chorus, organ, eight trumpets, three trombones, and harps. A devout Catholic, he had on his piano a music-rack in which was carved an image of the face of Jesus. In 1893 he died in Saint-Cloud of a stroke.

 Though his reputation began to fade even before he died, he is still generally regarded as a major figure in nineteenth century French music. Stylistically, he was a conservative whose influence nevertheless extended to Bizet, Saint-Saëns and Massenet. He could not be called a trailblazer or the founder of any movement or school. His works are tuneful, his vocal writing imaginative, and orchestral scoring masterly.

 Apart from Faust may I suggest finally you sample from among his more compelling and imaginative late works the 1885 Petite Symphonie Concertante of1885. Scored for nine wind instruments it has the influence and charm of a Mozart wind serenade. One other work of Gounod’s which you will almost certainly know even if you do not recognize it from its title, “Funeral March of the Marionette”. This work received a new and unexpected lease of life from 1955 when it was first used as the theme for the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Just think of the silhouette and Hitchcock moving into the outline of his own profile! Remember? Now you can start humming.

 

 

 

 

EDWARD ELGAR (1857 – 1934) – VIOLIN SONATA

 1934 was a particularly bad year for English music. Last week, we had Holst. This week Delius and Elgar. All three of them were to die within a three month period!

 Elgar is always described as a swaggering Edwardian. In truth he was a Victorian. Let’s face it, he was 43 at the turn of the century when Victoria still ruled supreme and he had experienced by then a large part of his career but without much in the way of public acclaim. He, no more than Delius, was voted a hit to start with but he was a good journeyman composer. The son of a piano tuner in Worcester he, in common with Walton after him, had no musical training. He composed numerous cantatas in the wake of Parry and Stanford whom he would later eclipse. Usually he composed a choral work for the Birmingham Festival where he not only served as composer but also as a feet on the ground violinist in the orchestra. His star began to rise with Caractacus, written for the Diamond Jubilee in 1897, not played enough; then The Dream of Gerontius, on to the Enigma Variations and eventually got to No 1 in the charts when in 1902 and the approaching coronation he called to his wife from the piano “Alice, I think I have a tune here which will knock them flat”. He was of course referring to Pomp & Circumstance March No 1 which by twenty years later he came to loathe, not least for its words.

 

His Edwardian associations reflected the high point of his career from 1900 to 1912 which included Falstaff, In the South, his violin concerto and his first and second symphonies. The latter saw Elgar and the lights of Europe go down. With the first world war there was no place for Elgar’s pre-war majestic imperialism and he could find no way to express the country’s and indeed his own changed outlook. He was horrified at the carnage but he did his own patriotic bit. The barren nature of his output is reflected in such stage works as Starlight Express and the Sanguine Fan and some quite awful rousers such as Carrillon, a recitation for speaker and orchestra in honour of Belgium, Polonia , an orchestral piece in honour of Poland. Thankfully, it is no longer played here although it still gets a performance in Poland. But then, as Thomas Beecham might have said, the Poles have no musical taste

Lady Alice felt she had to move Elgar out of London. Despite his knighthood, his order of merit and membership of the Saville Club he still felt his working class country roots. Against this depressing background, Alice rented ‘Brinkwells’, a house near Fittlworth in Sussex. There Elgar recovered his strength and, in 1918 and 1919, he produced three large-scale chamber works as well as the cello concerto. He had written earlier chamber works and he had wanted to return to this medium for some time. The first three of these were was the Violin Sonata in E minor which Matthew will be illustrating today. The other two were the Piano Quintet and the String Quartet. On hearing the work in progress, Alice wrote in her diary, “E. writing wonderful new music”. It is indeed wonderful music with Elgar expressing his torn inner self. It reflects the sadness of a lost world coupled with the odd reminiscent backward glance to maybe happier times. In the Quintet it is at times like inhabiting a dream of days at the Palm Court. For the sonata Elgar got help from W. H Reid, leader of the LSO who had similarly helped out with the composition of the violin concerto ten years before. Poor Billy, he put in all the effort without seeking reward whilst others, like Fritz Kreisler, would get the dedications.

One could believe that Elgar had entered into a burgeoning third period. It was not to be. Sadly Alice, who was always the one with the push, died and Elgar was left bereft with only his dogs for comfort. He relapsed into a long silence through the 1920’s peppered with a few insignificant commissions. He was perhaps just emerging from this miasma with the composition of his third symphony during which time he was diagnosed with cancer and quickly died. Fortunately we have Anthony Payne to thank for rescuing and bringing the third symphony to the light of day.