César Franck

(1822-1890)

Even Franck’s D minor Symphony, which met with such carping criticism when it was new, has remained a controversial part of the orchestral repertoire. The one orchestral work by César Franck which is by common consent a complete success is the Symphonic Variations, yet its length (about 15 minutes) makes it hard to program – not quite a concerto – and while it is gratifying for the soloist, it lacks the unabashed technical display and the big gestures which virtuosos can’t resist. It is in fact a highly original collaboration between piano and orchestra, and as a work in variation form, daring, in that the theme of the variations doesn’t appear in a full statement until well into the work.

This music was composed in 1885 as a thank-offering to the pianist Louis Diémer, who had played the important piano part in the first performance of Franck’s symphonic poem Les Djinns earlier in the year. He also premiered the Symphonic Variations, with Franck conducting, in Paris on May 1, 1886. The title immediately recalls the Etudes symphoniques for solo piano of Robert Schumann, and Franck’s structural concerns, subtly disguised as poetic expression, also recall Schumann.

Franck’s adventurous exploring of the theme’s musical essence rather than a melodic outline takes him far from the classical conception of variation form. One of the most perceptive analyses of this piece, by Sir Donald Tovey, describes it as ‘a finely and freely organised fantasia with an important episode in variation form’. This ‘episode’ is preceded by an introduction almost half as long and followed by a finale more than twice as long. The theme is only hinted at in the introduction, and is brought in as a bass counterpoint in two passages in the finale.

The introduction recalls the slow movement of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto in the way a gruff motif from the strings is answered by the piano’s gentle pleading. These two themes are worked up in dialogue. Then the time changes to 3/4, and the strings, pizzicato, with winds and kettledrums, give out two phrases of what is to turn out to be the theme. The piano rhapsodises on the theme of its answer, which will also provide the main material of the finale. The dialogue resumes, quietens down, and the piano states the theme in full – a quiet, thoughtful theme.

The first variation breaks the theme into dialogue phrase by phrase, the second hands it to the cellos over piano figuration, which becomes even more flowing in the next variation, contrasting with pizzicato strings. Variation four re-introduces the unison string theme from the introduction, relating it, fortissimo, to the variation theme. The fifth variation is less lively, in the same rhythm, and dies away into the sixth, a poetic rêverie with rippling piano in counterpoint to the theme. In the final variation, under constant piano arpeggios, the cellos ‘spell out a wonderful dream’ (Tovey) on the first phrase of the piano’s answer from the opening bars.

This is suddenly transformed rhythmically, to the accompaniment of a long piano trill, into the dance-tune which dominates the finale, and to which some wit put the words ‘get your hair cut’! No doubt this catchy tune contributes to the popularity of the variations, and it is brilliantly treated, not without a contrasting solo passage more typical of the side of Franck which appeals so much to long-hairs.

First published in a Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra program conducted by Marcello Viotti, 1999