Franck, C: Les Eolides - Symphonic Poem

“What a good idea to gather together Barenboim's 1976 Franck recordings...Redemption is given a splendidly convincing performance, with brass antiphonies gloriously brought out, making one wonder at the work's relative neglect.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“The playing at both ends of the spectrum, and in between, is faultless. In the Variations symphoniques, Tiberghien plays down the contrast at the start in favour of integration...but his playing throughout is clean, with subtle pedalling and a warm way with Franck's tunes.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2011 ****

“[Le chasseur maudit] has dramatic thrust, demonic intensity and clearly defined textural detail as well. There is a very real sense, in listening to this performance, that Roth and his orchestra have the dark narrative in their very blood...[the performance of Variations symphoniques] highlights the discretion, the strength and the subtleties of expression that distinguish [Tiberghien's] pianism and find sympathetic counterparts in the orchestral playing.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2011

“Tiberghien is a powerful exponent of both [piano] works; and these Liège accounts of the Leconte de Lisle-inspired Les Eolides, and of the balladic Le Chasseur maudit, make for lovely discoveries.” Sunday Times, 10th July 2011 ***

“Cédric Tiberghien dispatches [Les Djinns] with the same tingling panache he brings to the much better-known Symphonic Variations. Ideally all this music deserves a more sumptuous orchestral sound than the Liège Philharmonic can conjure up, but François-Xavier Roth balances refinement with drama very skillfully.” The Guardian, 14th July 2011 ****

“With so many versions of the Symphony and the Symphonic Variations available, it's surprising that these two favourite orchestral works aren't coupled more often. Here Tortelier adds an attractive bonus in the evocative tone-poem Les Eolides.
His reading of the Symphony is no less than five minutes shorter than both the Karajan and Chailly versions. The reading isn't in any way perfunctory, rushed or trivial, but one made fresher, eliminating any suspicion of the glutinous or sentimental, helped by a cleanly defined yet atmospheric recording. The slow introduction, promptly repeated, is all the more effective for being taken at a flowing speed, with no feeling of haste, and the main Allegro is fresh and alert, less smooth than with either Karajan or Chailly. Tortelier is far closer to Monteux in his feeling for the idiom than either Karajan or Chailly, both taking a weighty view. In tempo Tortelier is very similar to Karajan and Monteux in the central Allegretto, with fine gradations of dynamic and a slightly raw-sounding cor anglais adding to the freshness. It's in the finale that Tortelier is most distinctive, his fast, urgent speed for the Allegro non troppo challenging the players of the BBC Philharmonic to produce exciting rather than genial results.
Louis Lortie is the excellent soloist in the SymphonicVariations, spontaneously poetic in the slow sections, sparkling and light in the scherzando finale. Tortelier is again at his most warmly understanding in Les Eolides, a work that can seem wayward, but which here is made light and fanciful in its luminously scored evocation of the breezes of heaven.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The Symphony has structural strength, orchestral weight and a fine sense of Franck's rhythmic exuberance.” BBC Music Magazine