César Franck: Prélude, Choral et Fugue, FWV 21 - Yevgeny Morozov, piano / Yale Sprague Hall [Score]

Live performance at the Sprague Memorial Hall, Yale University (Yevgeny Morozov, piano). AUDIO + sheet music.

0:00 - Prélude.
4:30 - Choral.
9:25 - Fugue.

The Prélude, Choral et Fugue, Op. 21 was written in 1884, and is dedicated to Marie Poitevin.
This almost 20-minute-long cycle by César Franck is his best-known piano composition and is often played on concert platforms to this day.

It is a work in three movements in which thematic material is used in every movement, culminating in a magnificent fugue combining the three principal themes at once. In writing a prelude and fugue (the chorale was added as an afterthought), Franck was obviously paying homage to Bach. The actual composition, however, points to a number of other allegiances, namely Beethoven, Schumann, and Liszt.

The Franck Prelude Chorale and Fugue for solo piano is a masterpiece of imposing breadth and depth, it requires complete pianism, superb legato, and a well-developed sense of polyphony. The grandiose culmination of the Fugue, where the three themes sound simultaneously, is one of the great moments in all piano literature.