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16 mm. after reh. A - 5 mm. before reh. B
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Skills & Techniques: Loud Playing, Marcato Style, Rhythms
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Horn 1-2 (F)
Horn 3-4 (F)
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Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse (1995)
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Orchestre de Paris (1976)
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Composer & Composition Information
César Franck (1822-1890)
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César Franck, born in Belgium in 1822, was a French composer whose musical career was spearheaded by the ambitions of his father, who arranged for his first concert tour when he was only eleven. In 1836, Franck’s father moved the family to Paris with the goal of him being accepted to study at a conservatory. The following year, Franck began attending the Conservatoire de Paris studying both composition and the piano as well as gaining recognition as a writer of fugues. In 1842, Franck’s father removed him from the Conservatoire with the aim of Franck becoming a virtuoso at the piano. It was at this time that Franck composed his first piano trios. Frustrated with the lack of success, Franck earned his living by teaching and giving recitals. In 1848, Franck married and was appointed as the organist at Notre Dame de Lorette. He remained there until moving to St Jean-Françoise-du-Marais in 1853 and finally the St Clotilde in 1858. Franck, despite his long tenure as organist, is considered to have been more of a “Bach player” and improviser rather than virtuoso. His Mass for three voices and Six pieces pour grand orgue achieved him success and gained the attention of piano virtuoso and composer Liszt.
The text & image are reprinted from Seattle Chamber Music Society where more information about the composer can be found. |
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Le Chasseur Maudit
For a composer so given to contrapuntal elaborations and complex chromatic harmonies, Le Chasseur maudit is a work of remarkable directness, rhythmic vitality, and instrumental color. The subject matter of the tone poem was drawn from a ballade by the German Gottfried August Bürger (1747-1794), whose work had at least twice inspired substantial orchestral pieces. Joachim Raff’s Symphony No. 5 (Lenore, 1872) and Henri Duparc’s tone poem Lenore (1875) had been based on Bürger’s most famous ballade, in which a young woman whose lover had failed to return from war blasphemed against heaven in her despair; that night her Wilhelm rode up to her door, knocked, and hustled her onto the back of his great steed for an urgent midnight ride which ended as Wilhelm’s face melted away and he turned into a ghoulish skeleton. He, Lenore, and the steed leapt into an open grave at the ballade’s end.
This kind of spooky horror-story—filled with ghosts, vampires, and agents of the devil—strongly appealed to many of the Romantics. Weber’s Freischütz was the first great success in this line, followed by Marschner’s Der Vampyr and Hans Reiling. Even Wagner’s Flying Dutchman strongly echoes the tradition. In France, Berlioz played with a similar legend in Faust’s ride to the abyss at the end of La Damnation de Faust.
The text is written by & reprinted from Steven Ledbetter (Boston Symphony Orchestra) where more information about the composition can be found.
This kind of spooky horror-story—filled with ghosts, vampires, and agents of the devil—strongly appealed to many of the Romantics. Weber’s Freischütz was the first great success in this line, followed by Marschner’s Der Vampyr and Hans Reiling. Even Wagner’s Flying Dutchman strongly echoes the tradition. In France, Berlioz played with a similar legend in Faust’s ride to the abyss at the end of La Damnation de Faust.
The text is written by & reprinted from Steven Ledbetter (Boston Symphony Orchestra) where more information about the composition can be found.
Notable Performances/Recordings:
Frankfurt Radio Symphony (2022)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra (2020)
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (2013)
Boston Symphony Orchestra (1901)
Frankfurt Radio Symphony (2022)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra (2020)
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (2013)
Boston Symphony Orchestra (1901)