Franck • Vierne Franck: Piano Quintet; Violin Sonata; Piano Trio No.1; Vierne: Piano Quintet Catherine Montier (violin), Christophe Gaugué (viola); Trio Wanderer Harmonia Mundi HMM 902318.19 111:18 mins (2 discs)
Franck’s Piano Quintet was recognised from the outset as a work of deep, possibly forbidden, passions. His wife believed it to be evidence of an affair. Saint-Saëns walked off stage after the first performance, pointedly leaving behind the score dedicated to him. Certainly, Trio Wanderer, bolstered by Catherine Montier (violin) and Christophe Gaugué (viola), lack no fervour, confirming few works pack a greater emotional punch.
Vierne’s extraordinary Piano Quintet follows in the footsteps of Franck’s, and is every bit as intense but with raw grief rather than ardour. Written in the aftermath of his son’s death during World War I, Vierne set out to ‘bury him with a thunderous roar and not with the plaintive bleating of a resigned and foolish sheep’. It is an apposite choice here, not just for its affinity to Franck, readily apparent in this searing performance, but as a programmatic black armband in this two-disc set dedicated to the memory of pianist Nicholas Angelich.
In this context, Franck’s evergreen Violin Sonata has a feeling of morning freshness. There is also plenty of vigour, especially in the fiery second movement, in a performance that is finely played if not quite challenging the best in a crowded field. The set concludes with Franck’s first published Piano Trio, an early work that is no mere filler. Beethoven’s shadow may loom large, as it does in the Quintet, but Franck’s inventiveness and virtuosic handling of musical structures are already apparent, especially in Trio Wanderer’s superlative performance.
Christopher Dingle