Holly heard this piece for the first time at a concert late last year here in Padova. She was instantly entranced by it and has been working on it ever since. As I think we have all come to expect from Holly, the final product here is a hauntingly beautiful interpretation of a magnificent work.
So beautiful!! Thank you Holly!!
That was really fantastic!
I was moved, and I will let you know!
In all my years of listening, this is the first time I have ever heard this played on the piano. And so very lovingly Holly, thanks for this gift. Did you hear this in a church?
IMHO, not all piano transcriptions of organ compositions are successful, especially in the Romantic Period. The unmatched vast tonal resources of a very large cathedral organ creates a listening experience which is a combination of instrument and building. For large complex, and energetic (OK, LOUD) pieces, the cathedral’s multi second reverberation time (12 seconds for London’s Saint Pauls) means that you’ve got tones you played many seconds ago still affecting the tones you’re playing “now”. This sets up a real dissonance of sonic waves overlapping each other in a sloshing ocean of sound until the final chord, often kept playing just past the building’s reverb time to ensure it’s tonality “washes out” all the reverb. It’s difficult to duplicate this on a piano although the sustain pedal certainly helps.
However, in this current piece, and again IMHO, the piano is actually a much better choice because cathedral acoustics don’t do well with subtle nuances. The very reverberations that make big pieces so extraordinary tend to muddle up everything played softly. In Holly’s playing you hear very clearly each and every note and tonal shift as it appears and then quickly disappears, letting the listener float serenely along the tonal stream without the echoes of previous notes. Beautiful………….
Bravo Dear Sister! Keep it up!
Here’s a little cut and paste background for us nerds: A you-tube search of this piece for organ presents many performances but almost always in smaller venues than large cathedrals.
Like Widor, César Franck (1822–1890) was a Parisian organist, presiding from 1858 until his death at the Cavaillé-Coll organ at Ste-Clotilde. Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Op 18, the third of his Six Pièces (1860–62), is dedicated to Saint-Saëns. Coming as it does directly after Franck’s Grande Pièce Symphonique, Op 17, its title might suggest a contrasting work of neo-Baroque severity, but what could be more Romantic than the haunting oboe melody of the first movement? A typical Franckian theme, moving largely by step and emphasizing particular notes of the scale, it has two limbs, the first a flowing theme of five-bar phrases, the second a dogged affair ascending the scale in four-bar phrases (and taken up in quasi-canonic fashion by the pedals). A short bridge passage introduces the second movement, a sober fugue on a subject, vocal in character, marked cantando. Assisted by stretti, a muted climax is reached, and the music proceeds without a break to the Variation, in which the hautbois, taking the stage again, has the ‘flowing’ and ‘dogged’ themes of the first movement, but here set against rippling semiquavers.
Said as only one person on earth could.
My Dear Stuart – thank you so very much for your comments and historical background. As always, your musical perceptions mean the world to me and I was so grateful to read them. I’m SO glad you enjoyed the interpretation. I did not hear it in a church and I wish you could see the room where I did hear it first. It is an old palace and this was played in one of it’s larger “reception” rooms. If you google “Sala Dei Giganti Padova” you will see some amazing pictures. I was entranced by this piece as I have not been in a long time (the pianist was superb) and I rushed home to start learning it.
The Franck is so delicious! Thank you for working to bring it to us.
Wow, that was so beautiful. Thank you, Holly.
I used to listen to my daughter play cello for hours and it was so soothing – your piece in and of itself was soothing AND also brought back those fond memories I had of listening to my daughter play cello. Thank you. So glad to see you and Jim enjoying life, even in these awkward times. Looking forward to more music, pictures and more of your joint happiness. I was in Italy/Rome for the first time last year – I looking forward to seeing more of Italy. Best to both of you. Ethan
Bravo. I love this! Thank you Holly. Stay well my friends.
Hey kids, thanks again for another beautiful performance. The opening theme is, indeed, so haunting and lush. But the smile at the end (sans glasses, natch) did it for me! Keep them coming, please!!!! Love from Ellie and Jim.
Stuart said it all – and I agree! I’ve only heard it on the organ in churches – it works very well on Piano. I have “sight read” it on piano – full of pauses and mistakes – Lovely to hear someone play it so beautifully.