Andrew Unsworth performs César Franck’s Choral No. 3 in A minor on the Aeolian-Skinner Organ in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square (Salt Lake City, Utah).

César Franck (1822-90) was born in Liège, which is now part of Belgium but at the time was officially within the territory of The Netherlands. At his father’s urging, Franck began his career as a virtuoso pianist, and turned to the organ as his primary instrument only during his twenties. Soon after, he was appointed organist at the new basilica of St. Clotilde in Paris, where he served as titular organist from 1858 until his death in 1890.

In 1872, Franck was named Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire, an appointment that required him to take out permanent French citizenship. (He had become a provisional French citizen as a child when he enrolled at the Conservatoire, but it had expired on his 21st birthday.) As a professor at the Conservatoire, Franck was beloved by his students, a tight circle of devotees that included d’Indy, Chausson, Vierne, and Duparc.

The Three Chorals for Organ from 1890 are some of the last pieces Franck composed. He wrote them mostly at the piano, but died before he was able to register them fully or play them through on the organ at St. Clotilde. Neither completely sacred nor secular, they’re a synthesis of how Franck conceived the liturgy overlapping with the emerging concert tradition of the organ. Though their title connotes Lutheran hymns, Franck didn’t quote any pre-existent hymn tunes in them.

The Choral No. 3 in A minor is dedicated to Franck’s student Mademoiselle Augusta Holmès, who also studied with Henri Lambert, the organist at Versailles.

Piping Up! is an online series of concerts and performances by the organists serving on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, sponsored and presented by The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.
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