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| Franck turned to writing organ music only in his thirties, prompted not least by his appointment as organist at the Parisian Basilica Ste-Clotilde in 1858, a post he held until his death. He had played the organ at smaller churches in Paris before; the Six Pièces date back to that time and his first years at Ste-Clotilde; the core piece, Prélude, Fugue et Variation op. 18, with its extraordinary structure including a fugue as the central part, is dedicated to Camille Saint-Saens. Pastorale is dedicated to the famous organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811-1890); on the occasion of the inauguration of the Cavaillé-Coll Organ at the Palais du Trocadéro Franck wrote his Trois Pièces (1878) with their hymnic finale, the Pièce Héroique. True to his 1889 announcement that before his death he meant to compose three organ chorals 'like Johann Sebastian Bach but entirely different,' Franck actually completed his Trois Chorales within a very short time in September 1890. And they were, indeed, to be his last compositions: on 8 November 1890 Franck died of the injuries he suffered from a collision with a horse-drawn omnibus. Christoph Maria Moosmann's interpretation of Franck's complete organ works is both musically and technically no less than perfect. |
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| Recommendation |
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The master of the prepared piano tackles small musical forms with his accustomed originality in his Sonatas and Interludes.  |
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| Magnificent compositions and an outstanding ensemble: The Arditti Quartet plays Saunders, Mason, Bedford & Zorn! |
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| “Angst and lament, faith, hope, and joy”: With the help of Gregorian allusions and dense structures, Helmschrott created music that is at once sensual and contemplative. |
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