César Franck (1822-1890)
Prélude, choral et fugue, FWV 21
Prélude, fugue et variation, FWV 3 (trans. Friedman)
Prélude, aria et final, FWV 23
Sonate pour violon en la majeur, FWV 8 (trans. A. Cortot)

Yannick Van de Valde, piano

L’année Franck – 1822/2022 – nous offre de superbes découvertes. Y compris dans le répertoire que nous croyons bien connaître. A vrai dire, l’émotion nous surprend toujours au détour d’une mélodie de Franck, de ces infimes liens qu’il tisse d’un thème vers un autre et qui nous conduisent aux portes de la lumière. C’est la démarche de l’interprète Yannick van de Velde, dont le sous-titre de l’album "Between two Worlds" nous semble moins s’inspirer de la confrontation entre l’univers baroque ou classique - de sa rigueur supposée au romantisme en pleine liberté de sentiments - que de l’évocation d’un passage secret et spirituel, entre la Terre et le Ciel. Il joue cette musique avec une ampleur et non une emphase, un sens des couleurs magnifique, celui de la registration d’un organiste de Sainte-Clotilde, la plus célèbre des tribunes parisiennes de Franck. Plus encore, il respire, approfondit les couleurs dans la magnifique transcription du Prélude, fugue et variations réalisée par Ignaz Friedman dont il ne presse jamais le mouvement contrairement à tant d’interprètes. Il joue "juste" dans l’impossible défi à relever de la Sonate pour violon et piano dont Alfred Cortot réalisa une fantastique et si rare transcription. Le caractère intimiste de la partition et la violence interne sont littéralement vécus. Les ombres de Liszt et de Fauré assaillent cette page devenue redoutable sur le plan technique – elle l’est déjà pour le pianiste qui fait jeu égal avec le violoniste – et dont Yannick van de Velde déjoue tous les pièges. Un très beau disque. (Jean Dandrésy)

Chopin's delicate lyricism, which was extremely popular in the salons of France where Chopin was performing, fell out of fashion with the rise of Austro-German dominance within the country in the second half of the nineteenth century. However, from the 1870s onwards in Paris, French composers put it upon themselves to return their music to its roots. And with such a rich heritage of keyboard repertoire to draw from, it was in this medium that some of the greatest works of the time were written. Faure´, Dukas, Chabrier, Saint-Sae¨ns and many others composed music for the instrument, each with their own personal voice and yet (almost) always endeavouring to break free from the shackles of Austro-German influence and remain distinctly French in style. Whilst his contemporaries produced a great amount for the solo piano, Ce´sar Franck completed only two large-scale works - the Prelude, Choral & Fugue and the Prelude, Aria & Finale. It was not until 1884, and the publication of the Prelude, Choral & Fugue, that Ce´sar Franck would truly begin to develop his personal voice – innovative and ground-breaking whilst at the same time reverent to the greats of the past, and displaying a spirituality both introverted and extroverted within which one can find many parallels with the late works of Beethoven. And in a century of piano music dominated by such German masters as Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, this work can be arguably titled the most important addition to the French piano literature since the time of Rameau. Despite being performed far less frequently in concert than the Prelude, Choral & Fugue, the Prelude, Aria & Finale is no less masterful in its construction, and with it being written in September 1887 it would be the last work he would write for the instrument. The Prelude, Choral and Fugue is distinctly religious in flavour, whereas the Prelude, Aria & Finale is a more secular take of this tripartite structural plan. This is exemplified by the titles of the slow movements (a Choral is a divine song of spirituality, whilst the Aria, with its operatic connotations, is more human) and the last movements (fugues are strongly associated with church music, whilst the Finale does not share this connection). It was not until 1886 that Franck published his first and only Sonata for violin and piano. And it was with this work that Franck finally received the acclaim and admiration that had somehow evaded a man of his talents for so many years. Here van der Velde plays it in the rare trasncription for piano solo by Alfred Cortot. The fourth piece of this recording is the even rarer transcription of the Prélude, Fugue and Variations by the great Polish virtuoso Ignaz Friedman.