Search - Cesar Franck, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra :: Franck: Symphony in D Minor/Symphonic Variations/Piece heroique

One of the best recordings of Franck's Symphony

12/22/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Franck's d-moll symphony is very difficult to perform in good condition. Mengelberg and Furtwangler are superior conductors for this work. However, please listen to Ormandy. His interpretation and his conducting skill are comparable to the two great conductors. It is marvellous. Symphonic Variations is also a perfect performance."

Listen carefully before you invest

bob flagg | 07/18/2000

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I have to jump in here and merely say that this reading, heavy and lethargic-sounding when it came out years ago, sounds even worse now. My colleague from Kyoto rightly places it in the school of Furtwangler and Mengelberg--two maestri to whom I can add Rodzinski and Karajan--who hadn't a clue of how to handle the Franckian, and Gallic, aesthetic.Franck's symphony is unpretentious but it is also full of power, drama, color, and kinetic energy. Ormandy seems to want to find a lot of meditation in the slow movement where there is none. Plaintive doesn't mean whiney. From the english horn on, the whole thing sags like a hammock on a sultry day and the color gets darker and more syrupy even to the point of priggishness where the last movement isn't even allowed to breathe much less move. Why would any interpreter think that anyone would write or want to listen to something like this?This is one of those old-time "Sweet Papa Franck" readings that perpetrated the inane notions of the composer in bad Music Appreciation classes. This is low-grade red vermouth when we've ordered a fine white Burgundy.For the leonine Franck who really was, try Paul Paray and the Detroit Symphony on Mercury to get full measure of the work. The light, the force, the drama, the organ-like wind writing, the overwhelming power of the orchestration hit you full force and stay with you. And on top of it all, you get Paray's magnificent reading of Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony to boot.Back with Ormandy: in the Variations, things go quite a lot better. Merely having Casadesus walk on stage got Ormanday to add some soda to the syrup, and the painist's bell-like and crystalline tones luxuriate like fine pearls laid across sable. Not that Franck was rabbit, but this fine wrap goes a ways afield from the light, sprightly, unassuming, kind of fizzy, "novel" work that Franck aimed to produce. Still, it makes fine listening. However, it in no way approaches the aesthetic integrity of Joyce and Munch, Schweitzer and Munch, Ciccolini and Cluytens, Ciccolini and Strauss, Wayenberg and Bour, or Long and Paray, to a name a few. It's your choice of how much stylistic integrity you want in the Franck you have in your collection.The Biggs filler makes a fine filler and a fine afterthought. Ormandy's symphony should have had the power and drama Biggs finds. Overall, not a good rating for not a good package."

Ormandy as the ideal interpreter of the Romantic Franck

bob flagg | forestville, ca United States | 01/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Please ignore the pretentious twaddle of the first review, and
purchase this cd if you are looking for a wonderful performance
of the Franck Symphony. Let a real music critic from American
Record Guide Nov-Dec 1999 describe its merits: "Ormandy's Franck
D minor gives the listener an almost perfect picture of his high-
ly romantic style, as well as the famed "Philadelphia Sound" he
cajoled from his players. The Philadelphia strings are rich, plush, velvety, plummy, ripe and roseate. Their ensemble is sleek, refined, near-perfect. Woodwind and brass are splendid, in a more conventional and less confrontational way,occasionally
(but rarely) swamped by the string section. . . For Franck, Ormandy's tempos are well chosen, and his presentation is very hard to fault. As a romantically-oriented performance it is prac-
tically unexcelled. Franck is generally seen as a romantic composer, so there's no reason to look further." Romantic
is a positive word here, passionate and melodic. If you enjoy the symphony, check out Franck's beautiful and romantic Piano
Quintet and String Quartet."