César Franck

Complete Works for Organ Vol. 2

The Wiener Urtext Edition is the first new edition of Cesar Franck's collection of pieces for organ or harmonium entitled 'L'Organiste' since the first edition published posthumously in 1892. The musical text is based on the autograph engraver's model of 1890, whose 59 pieces have been supplemented by four further pieces which Franck had intended for the collection but no longer wrote out. The individual pieces are grouped into nine cycles, arranged according to key, each consisting of six Magnificat versets and one larger Offertoire or Sortie. The tonally and harmonically appealing compositions enrich the organ repertoire of French late Romanticism and are equally suitable for liturgy, teaching and concerts.
Until around 1844, César Franck was mainly known as a piano virtuoso. In 1851, he became organist at the church of St. Jean-François in Paris, where he had a rather modest two-manual organ by Cavaillé-Coll at his disposal, but whose tonal beauty inspired him so much that he exclaimed in response to a question: 'My new organ? It's an orchestra!" In 1859, Franck finally became organist titulaire at Ste. Clotilde in Paris, a position he held until his death in 1890.