by Kathleen Frise-Smith (Northern Programme)
It is curious that the piano was Cesar Franck 's first and last love. In the full flush of youthful enthusiasm he wrote a number of piano pieces and then for nearly forty years the piano had no place in his scheme of things. However, at the age of sixty-two, realising a dearth of serious modem compositions for the piano, Franck set to work on several ambitious compositions to fill the gap. One of the finest was the ' Prelude, Choral, and Fugue ', which was first performed in 1885. Vincent d'Indy tells us that
' Franck started with the intention of simply writing a prelude and fugue in the style of Bach, but he soon took up the idea of linking these two movements together by a Chorale, the melodic spirit of which should brood over the whole work.'