César Franck

Symphonic Variations (Franck)

The Symphonic Variations (Variations symphoniques), M. 46, is a work for piano and orchestra written in 1885 by César Franck. It has been described as "one of Franck's tightest and most finished

History#

The work was dedicated to Louis Diémer, who on 15 March 1885 had premiered Les Djinns, a symphonic poem for piano and orchestra that brought Franck one of his rare critical successes. He promised to reward Diémer with “a little something”, and the similarly scored Symphonic Variations was the result. Franck started work in the summer of 1885, and completed the piece on 12 December.

Premiere#

The premiere on 1 May 1886, at the annual orchestral concert of the Société Nationale de Musique, went almost unnoticed. The soloist was Diémer, and the composer conducted. The second performance was not until 30 January 1887, at a concert devoted entirely to Franck under the conductor Jules Pasdeloup, with Diémer again as soloist. It still failed to impress. The British premiere occurred on 23 October 1902 at the Promenade Concerts, under the baton of Henry Wood.

Structure#

While there is no doubt that it demonstrates Franck’s mastery of variation form, the overall structure of the Symphonic Variations has been a matter of debate. Donald Tovey called it “a finely and freely organized fantasy, with an important episode in variation form”. ranging from six depending on how one counts: brief variations having similar character can be analyzed as just sections of longer and more complex variations. The last variation is marked Molto più lento. It changes the mode from minor to major (F major). After this, the music returns to minor for a new transitional episode, in which the descending theme reappears played by the strings con sordini with a mysterious piano arpeggio accompaniment. It is quite long (about 2 minutes) and ends with a piano trill announcing the final part. The work ends with a brilliant final in the parallel F major (Allegro non troppo). It is a compact sonata-form movement, complete with first (the descending theme) and second (the ascending theme) subjects, development, and recapitulation. The second subject appears at first in D major and returns in F major.

Arrangements#

In 1946 the choreographer Frederick Ashton used Franck’s work for a ballet, also called Symphonic Variations. Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia (quasi variazione) on the Old 104th Psalm Tune for piano, chorus, and orchestra (1949) has some similarities to the Symphonic variations, but it lacks Franck’s adherence to classical variation form.

Composer: César Franck