César Franck: Pastorale op.13 - Flemming Viðar Valmundsson

From my BMus exam at The Royal Danish Academy of Music 10.6.2020
Program Notes:

César Franck (1822-1890)

The Belgian/French organist and composer was described by his friends as a man of utmost humility, simplicity, reverence and industry, who showed a constant concern for the dignity of his art, for the nobility of his mission, and for the fervent sincerity of his sermon in sound. This care for his work resulted in his pieces containing admirable contrapuntal complexity, astounding modulations, and iconic inflection of melodies, all summing up to the widespread idea that he may be the greatest organ composer of all time, second to Bach.

Pastorale in E Major, op. 19 (1862)

The life of the shepherd, who had to keep his flock safe and guide it throughout the terrains, through the seasons, on an everlasting search for water and pasture, became increasingly romanticized as the urbanization of Europe took place throughout the middle ages. The pastoral genre found its place in all art mediums, evocating the peaceful and simple lifestyle, embodying the nostalgic feelings of those who lived their life with ever-expanding haste as cities grew bigger, technologies developed and the world grew more complicated and filled with turmoil. Franck’s contribution to the genre is one of the definitive pieces of French organ repertoire. Its warm colours and structured polyphony flow so effortlessly through slow or smooth harmonic changes, feeling as if one has stopped to breath and calmly collect themselves, and take in the wonders that surround oneself in the moment, as it passes, like a shepherd on the vast plains of Northern Europe in the summer months.

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