# SS 09.08.14 - Franck "Symphony In D Minor"



## realdealblues

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening!

For your listening pleasure this weekend:

*Cesar Franck (1822 - 1890)*

Symphony in D Minor

1. Lento; Allegro ma non troppo
2. Allegretto
3. Finale: Allegro non troppo

---------------------

Post what recording you are going to listen to giving details of Orchestra / Conductor / Chorus / Soloists etc - Enjoy!


----------



## realdealblues

This honestly isn't a work I'm overly familiar with. I've only heard it a few times and I only own 3 or 4 recordings of it so it will be nice to hear this one again.

I'll be listening to a recording I haven't heard before and just received in the big Bernstein box.

View attachment 48197


Leonard Bernstein/Orchestre National de France


----------



## ptr

I'm on for Franck, one of the first complete recordings of the d-minor from 1928...









Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire u. Philippe Gaubert (Timpani)

..and for fun, a secondary live version from 1970;









Hilversum Radio Symphony Orchestra u. Leopold Stokowski (Decca)

/ptr


----------



## Jeff W

I seem to only have one recording of this. Good thing it is a goodie.









Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra for me.


----------



## csacks

Sorry, I am afraid I do not have a single piece of Cesar Franck. I have heard some choral pieces, but there is nothing in my library. Ay recommendation to purchase?. On line purchases are welcome, instead of real CD who may take a long time to be received down here.


----------



## brotagonist

I thought I didn't have this one, either, but I just remembered that I stumbled across it at the used CD store not long after Sid James' article last year. I'll give my CD a spin:


----------



## ptr

csacks said:


> Sorry, I am afraid I do not have a single piece of Cesar Franck. I have heard some choral pieces, but there is nothing in my library. Ay recommendation to purchase?. On line purchases are welcome, instead of real CD who may take a long time to be received down here.


I think that Charles Dutoit on Decca is a fine place to start ones Franckmania! (The Montreal Orchestra being one of the best French orchestras in the world during Dutoit's tenure! )

/ptr


----------



## Cosmos

Ooo this is a good one!
I'll be listening to Muti with the Philadelphia Orchestra


----------



## Mahlerian

Chicago Symphony/Pierre Monteux


----------



## Radames

I think it's my only Cantelli recording.


----------



## JACE

I'll spin these two:









Riccardo Chailly, Concertgebouw Orchestra









Charles Munch, Boston SO


----------



## JACE

csacks said:


> Sorry, I am afraid I do not have a single piece of Cesar Franck. I have heard some choral pieces, but there is nothing in my library. Ay recommendation to purchase?. On line purchases are welcome, instead of real CD who may take a long time to be received down here.


I think many people associate Pierre Monteux with Franck's symphony. His recording is considered a classic. I've never gotten 'round to hearing it. But I'm sure I will some day. 

Mahlerian - I see that Monteux is your choice. Anything to add?

For more recommendations, here's a write up on another site: http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics3/franck.html


----------



## Mahlerian

JACE said:


> I think many people associate Pierre Monteux with Franck's symphony. His recording is considered a classic. I've never gotten 'round to hearing it. But I'm sure I will some day.
> 
> Mahlerian - I see that Monteux is your choice. Anything to add?


Well, the work's never been that much of a favorite of mine, so I haven't explored most of the options out there. I've heard Bernstein and a few live performances and maybe a few more...so I don't know if I can really speak to interpretation, but it sure is a nice-sounding recording.


----------



## MagneticGhost

This is my only copy of the Franck. A freebie from BBC Music Magazine.
BBC National Orchestra of Wales - Conducted by Tadaaki Otaka - Live from the Proms 1999


----------



## Itullian

brotagonist said:


> I thought I didn't have this one, either, but I just remembered that I stumbled across it at the used CD store not long after Sid James' article last year. I'll give my CD a spin:


I've got this one as well.


----------



## hpowders

"The work's never been that much of a favorite of mine" regarding the D Minor Symphony. Nor mine _Franckly_ speaking.

But for those who must indulge, Pierre Monteux and Charles Munch are as good as it gets.


----------



## Haydn man

Not a work that I know so have looked at Spotify and chosen


----------



## maestro267

I listened to Chicago SO conducted by Pierre Monteux earlier. Wonderful symphony. One of the themes, in the middle of the finale, sounds like Frere Jacques, the theme which Mahler used for the slow movement of his First Symphony.


----------



## Mika

don't have any recordings of this - youtube came to rescue


----------



## Rhythm

Trying to remember the last time I gave Franck a thought is embarrassing. Surely those listeners who are lovers of Franck notice my tipped hat to them!

*Symphony D minor* | César Franck 
Emmanuel Krivine conducted live la Chambre Philharmonique, a performance in which inhales through the mouth or nose by certain instrumentalists are heard, and those sounds are to my liking: they are part of all of it.

Favored would be the whole of the second movement. With harp and strings pizzicato at the start, the melody is later heard from cor anglais, and that melody becomes a potential ear-worm, an irrepressibly beautiful one.​
*Score*
Lento; Allegro ma non troppo, mark 0:19, pdf p 2
Allegretto, mark 16:58, pdf p 62
Finale; Allegro non troppo, mark 27:18, pdf p 102​
Plus this listen…

*Symphony D minor, 1st mov* | *2nd & 3rd mov*
Charles Munch conducted Boston Symphony Orchestra; 1983 vinyl​


----------



## CyrilWashbrook

Bit late to this one, as I was rather busy yesterday. I quite like this symphony. I first encountered it earlier this year when I played it with my alumni orchestra. The Monteux recording is a classic but I'll try something different, namely Giulini's 1957 recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra:


----------



## Haydn man

Listened to my chosen version as posted above.
Initial thoughts were interesting romantic symphony that I will need to listen to again before making any opinion, but must say that it didn't appear to be anything ground breaking.


----------



## Vaneyes

Another apology for being tardy. And I'm copycatting Cosmos, albeit with a different/original cover (rec.1982).:tiphat:

View attachment 49307


----------



## Orfeo

realdealblues said:


> This honestly isn't a work I'm overly familiar with. I've only heard it a few times and I only own 3 or 4 recordings of it so it will be nice to hear this one again.
> 
> I'll be listening to a recording I haven't heard before and just received in the big Bernstein box.
> 
> View attachment 48197
> 
> 
> Leonard Bernstein/Orchestre National de France


It's my favorite recording of the symphony. Truly a moving, powerful, captivating performance.


----------



## LarryShone

The only Franck I have is his famous Sonata on a no name disk. I quite like it though. If I understand correctly his name is pronounced like Fronk rather than Frank.


----------



## MrCello

This is one of my favorite symphonies. Very underrated in my opinion.

Just listened to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra version with Pierre Monteux.


----------



## SONNET CLV

Re: the Franck Symphony in D minor -- I'm surprised to read how many who posted on this thread either don't know this work or don't much favor it. For me, it has proven a long cherished war horse, one of the first symphonies I ever heard, and one I continually turn to. A monument in the symphonic literature.

I favor the Monteux recording, but I haven't heard a poor recording of this piece, I must admit. And I tend to alternate between the several I have available.

I must mention, that those who choose to explore this work might want to visit a couple of other great French symphonies, especially the Chausson Symphony in B-flat, Saint-Saëns's Symphony No.3 in C minor, and the D'Indy Symphony No. 2.

As well, check out Franck's _Symphonic Variations _for piano and orchestra and D'Indy's _Symphony on a French Mountain Air_, also for piano and orchestra. And if this stuff leads you into the symphonies of Albéric Magnard, Charles Tournemire, and Maurice Emmanuel ... so much the better.


----------



## MrCello

César Franck needs more recognition in general!

Maybe I'm just too much of a Franquiste!


----------



## Triplets

dholling said:


> It's my favorite recording of the symphony. Truly a moving, powerful, captivating performance.


I used to listen to this quite frequently. My recording was adoration conducting the Royal PO, on lp.
After a long hiatus I bought the Monteux/CSO and then recently the Paul Paray recording on Mercury. 
They are both excellent.


----------



## bigshot

Giulini with Berlin on DGG is excellent. It has a really good fill up of Psyche et Eros too.


----------



## aeschylus

It's interesting that this symphony seems to have gone out of fashion- as far as I'm aware it is rarely programmed nowadays.

I heard it first in a recording by Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orch which reappeared on CD as Sony essential classics SBK60287.

Arguably, Franck's best pieces are the prelude chorale and fugue for piano and the symphonic variations.


----------



## Scififan

Mahlerian said:


> Chicago Symphony/Pierre Monteux


This is the version (though in a Mono recording) in which I first heard the symphony and I fell in love with it. Sometimes the first recording of a work may make an indelible impression and it becomes the "default" version. For me so it was with the Franck D minor symphony and the Monteux/Chicago version. And so it remains.


----------



## Don Fatale

aeschylus said:


> It's interesting that this symphony seems to have gone out of fashion- as far as I'm aware it is rarely programmed nowadays.
> I heard it first in a recording by Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orch which reappeared on CD as Sony essential classics SBK60287.
> Arguably, Franck's best pieces are the prelude chorale and fugue for piano and the symphonic variations.


I saw it performed by the Malta Philharmonic a few months ago. They did a great job and it was much enjoyed by the audience. I'm a keen Franckophile so I was delighted to see get a chance to finally experience this. Next on my wish list is his monumental Psyche, a favourite of mine.


----------



## Marsilius

Barbirolli conducting the Czech Philharmonic is another fine account - but, as others have said, no-one beats Monteux's with the Chicago S.O.


----------



## PeterF

I enjoy these threads selecting one composition to pull off the shelf and to hear.
Am very late on this one. Have just 2 recordings of the Franck D Minor Symphony.
One by Montreux and the CSO, and the other by Janowski and the Orchestre de Suisse Romande.

Haven't heard the "classic" version by Montreux in a long time, so have just pulled it from the shelf
And hope to play it soon.


----------

