Franck - Prelude, Chorale & Fugue

[andhow04]

this is from a concert a couple of weeks ago.  here is the whole program:

Medtner - two fairy tales, op.20
Quentin Kim - Sonata in g# minor
Franck - Prelude, Chorale n Fugue
INTERMISSION
Debussy - Masques / D'un cahier d'esquisses / L'isle joyeuse
Bartok - Musiques nocturnes
Messiaen - petites esquisses d'oiseaux

the franck has one moment of doubt unfortunately, but otherwise i think it came off.. enjoy

[furtwaengler]

This is a very quick performance! At the end, I think I could see where you were going...an overwhelming, majestic coda. But it was sometimes a wild ride, and sometimes an exciting one - two descriptions I've never used in connection with this ultimately ethereal piece. For my taste it all happened too fast and would benefit from more time to breathe and more time to allow things their time and space, letting it unfold slowly and naturally. It can create the effect or feeling of a spiritual experience. But this might be precisely why you took this approach? To remove this wrapping? It's very cool if you did, for there is always another side to common perception, and presenting this can be quite revealing indeed. (Boulez's performances of Debussy and Bruckner come to mind in this respect...all of which I deeply love!)

(Maybe it was just a fresh reading, removed from the influence of history and perception. I like fresh.)

[birba]

I tend to agree with Furtwaengler on this one.  Maybe because I grew up always hearing a more German approach.  I love this piece, though I never had the courage to learn it.  More than the tempo, I think it has to do with your touch.  It's very French, in a way, (and rightly so! ) and your delicate approach to much of it is beautiful.  But sometimes you sacrifice those innovative and wagnerian harmonic progressions to the melody.  I hear it more grand as if played on a 5 console organ with a more even and "beefy" touch between all the notes. 
But nonetheless I really enjoyed hearing your interpretation of it!

[Bob]

*Bob also claps and woo's*

[rachfan]

Hi anyhow,

Bravo!  I loved your rendition that with your own interpretation and so masterfully too. Excellent.

I agree with birba's comment on sacrificing some of the Wagnerian-influenced harmonies to the melody. To some extent, Frank and Debussy were contemporaries, although Frank was born in an earlier era, and was the considerably older gentleman of the two.  Debussy was annoyed by the rising trend of pianists voicing chords, instead preferring to hear the full color of chords as opposed to a melodic note on top with subdued underlying harmonies within the chords.  Of course, the Late Romantic and the Impressionistic styles were quite different in several ways, although there was an overlap of the two periods.  (Debussy's earliest compositions were often late romantic in character.)  I also think of the Russian Medtner (you play two Tales here) in this same regard, but for a different reason.  His harmonies are often so innovative and bold, we cannot resist allowing them to shine through.  Returning to Frank, he also composed those great romantic heavy organ works in the French tradition, like Widor for example, with those wonderful chromatic progressions where the power comes from the full expression of the chords more so than the melodic notes alone which might sound more anemic.  All of this is a matter of degree, of course, and a personal judgment.  

Again, I believe you've given us a fine artistic rendition, and obviously your live audience was most appreciative too.      

[andhow04]

This is a very quick performance! At the end, I think I could see where you were going...an overwhelming, majestic coda. But it was sometimes a wild ride, and sometimes an exciting one - two descriptions I've never used in connection with this ultimately ethereal piece. For my taste it all happened too fast and would benefit from more time to breathe and more time to allow things their time and space, letting it unfold slowly and naturally. It can create the effect or feeling of a spiritual experience. But this might be precisely why you took this approach? To remove this wrapping? It's very cool if you did, for there is always another side to common perception, and presenting this can be quite revealing indeed. (Boulez's performances of Debussy and Bruckner come to mind in this respect...all of which I deeply love!)

(Maybe it was just a fresh reading, removed from the influence of history and perception. I like fresh.)

thanx for the thoughtful words!  Honestly it was hard to get a grip on this music, and tho i have performed it several times, it reminds me of my first teacher who saw glenn gould in concert, and spoke to him afterwards, complimented him on beethoven sonata, and gould said, "oh, i've only played it thirty times... it's not good enough"

it's hard to get a balance between painting a picture, and losing contorl of the emotions in this music!