Daniel Isoir - Franck: Triptyques [Piano Works / Œuvres pour piano] (2021) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Daniel Isoir pays homage to his father André Isoir, one of the greatest French organists, by performing the works that marked his childhood: the three triptychs of Franck. In order to record this music with its contained lyricism, its fluid, subtle harmonies, illuminated by memories as fleeting as they are dazzling of high virtuosity, he has chosen an Erard piano of 1875 setting it off with magnificent luminosity and sumptuous colours.

Before becoming an organist and leaving an indelible mark on the organ repertory, César Franck was a virtuoso pianist. This we have of course always known, yet the (re)foundational biography of Joël-Marie Fauquet (1999) was needed to gain the measure of this. Franck had everything to succeed as a pianist: a father of unbridled ambition for his offspring; an emperor’s first name (César Auguste); hands with interminable fingers; transcendent technique and the support of Franz Liszt. Everything! Everything, except the charisma of the virtuoso, being in fact a kind of doe-eyed ledger clerk, with a Liégois accent, who in 1846 would ‘crack’ and disappear from the concert platform. Though he continued throughout his life to give piano lessons in order to feed himself, he effected a reconversion and became an organist. He thus ceased to compose for the piano… for 38 years: a unique instance, no doubt, that readily kept him from the ease with which his pianist and organist colleagues such as Saint-Saëns, Widor and Fauré would pass from one medium to the other, and from
the organ loft to the Parisian stage.

Tracklist:
1. Prélude, Choral et Fugue in B Minor, FWV 21: I. Prélude. Moderato (04:47)
2. Prélude, Choral et Fugue in B Minor, FWV 21: II. Choral. Poco più lento - Poco allegro (06:19)
3. Prélude, Choral et Fugue in B Minor, FWV 21: III. Fugue. Tempo I (07:11)
4. Choral No. 3 pour grand orgue in A Minor, FWV 38-40 (Arr. for piano) (11:46)
5. Prélude, Aria et Final in E Major, FWV 23: I. Prélude. Allegro moderato e maestoso (08:30)
6. Prélude, Aria et Final in E Major, FWV 23: II. Aria. Lento (06:55)
7. Prélude, Aria et Final in E Major, FWV 23: III. Final. Allegro molto ed agitato (07:11)
8. Prélude, Fugue et Variation in B Minor, FWV 30: I. Prélude. Andantino - Lento (04:06)
9. Prélude, Fugue et Variation in B Minor, FWV 30: II. Fugue. Allegretto ma non troppo (02:48)
10. Prélude, Fugue et Variation in B Minor, FWV 30: III. Variation. Andantino (03:04)
11. Danse Lente in F Minor, FWV 22 (03:04)


Thanks to the Original customer!