Berlioz, Franck, Messiaen 2018

December 17, 2018.  Les trois francophones.  Last week we celebrated Beethoven’s birthday and promised to write later about three composers, who were also born that week.  The three we’re referring to are Hector Berlioz, César Franck, and Olivier Messiaen.  Two of them, Berlioz and Messaien, were French by birth; Franck was born in Liege, which is now in Belgium, but spent most of his adult life in Paris and eventually took French citizenship.  Hector Berlioz was born on December 11^th of 1803 in La Côte-Saint-André, a small town half way between Lyon and Grenoble.  Berlioz is a unique figure in the history of European music.  A Romantic composer, he didn’t have any musical predecessors, either in France or anywhere else, and didn’t leave any followers.  During his lifetime, he wasn’t acknowledged as a musical talent in France and ended up mostly conducting (he was much better received in Germany and England).  He wrote three operas: the first one, Benvenuto Cellini, had a terrible reception; his second, Les Troyens, was so long that it was never performed in France during his life; the third, Béatrice et Bénédict, was premiered in Germany and continued playing there for years, the first staging in Paris dates from 1890 – by then Berlioz had been dead for 21 years.  These days Berlioz is recognized as one of the greatest composers of the 19^th century.  His symphonic masterpieces were acknowledged a long time ago, but even his operas, especially the astounding Les Troyens, are staged more often, despite all technical difficulties.   Here’s the Overture to Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, composed in 1858.  Colin Davis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

César Franck was born December 10^th of 1822.  He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Liège and later went to the Paris Conservatory, where he studied the organ and composition.  He became a fine organist and was hired as the organist at the newly-built St. Clotilde church in the 7^th arrondissement, with a great organ by Cavaillé-Coll.  Franck played there from 1858 till his death in 1890.  While he composed most of his adult life, it was only after he became established as the professor at the Paris Conservatory in 1872 that he could pursue composition seriously.  Probably his best-known work is the Violin Sonata, composed in 1886, when Franck was 68.  It’s one of the most popular pieces in the violin repertoire with literally hundreds of available recordings.  Here’s one of them, made in 1968 by David Oistrakh and Sviatoslav Richter.

Olivier Messiaen, born on December 10^th of 1908, 110 years ago, was one of the most important composers of the 20^th century.  We’ve written about him many times, for example here and here, but he clearly deserves another full entry, which we’ll try to do next year.  Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-Jésus is one of Messiaen best (and best known) pieces for the piano.  It is a long suite consisting of 20 pieces (the performance usually takes about two hours).  We already have a number of excerpts in the library; here are two more, no. 3, L'échange, and no. 4, Regard de la Vierge.  Both are played by Pierre-Laurent Aimard.