César Franck (1822-1890)
Prélude, Choral, et Fugue, FWV 21 (1884)
Nikolai Lugansky, 2019
Mariinsky Theatre

[0:00] I. Prélude. Moderato
[4:43] II. Choral. Poco più lento -
[10:00] Poco Allegro
[11:23] III. Fugue. Tempo I° -
[15:41] Come una cadenza -
[18:28] Vivo


“ … a searchingly ruminative prélude and the swiftly running fugue - beginning with angst-laden drama to conclude in triumphantly incandescent peals - were composed together. Only then did the lack of something expressively and architecturally linking become apparent, prompting the composition of the great harped chorale, resounding across the keyboard and requiring the left hand to reach over into the treble to chime the theme. The upshot is an elaborately figured, chromatically inflected, and texturally rich essay in which doubt and faith, darkness and light, oscillate until a final ecstatic resolution. “

- Adrian Corleonis