documenting student’s knowledge in Romantic literature’s field. Beyond the evident didactic gap that this choice shows , remains however the historical interest on how it could be understood, in our country, the performance of pieces of a composers who has linked his expressive world to a well particular type of instrument – the organ developped by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll – light years far as to the traditional typology of Italian organ building, also as to that following the Cecilian Reformation that, starting from the last decade of the 19th century, has tried to fill the existing furrow between our instruments and those that were realized in the rest of Europe from over a forty-year period. From his authority’s fist order in 1841 with the organ of Saint Denis’ Cathedral and then with at least 600 instruments of various dimensions realized in France and abroad during over 30 years, Cavaillé-Coll outlines, through studies on new technologies of pipes, systems of air’s feeding and innovations of transmission, an instrument that not wrongly is defined “symphonic” for timbre cohesion, dynamic ductility, and phonic power. In particular two parisian instruments mark deeply the aesthetic sounding that Franck expresses through his pieces, that of Sainte Clotilde’s Basilica (1859) and that for the Trocadero’s Palace. Both instruments though have density and versatility in common, not only in Franck’s compositions , but also in all the French school between ‘800 and ‘900. None instrument constructed in Italy between the 19th and the 20th century have that sounding substance, remaining though wide the distance that separates our “Romantic” organ from that French, both in the dynamic rendering and in the timbre endowment. Despite these evident differences, our organ players for over a century compete with César Franck’s pages both from a didactic point of view and concert, carring necessarily the ideal and original sounding. Not for this, failed explanatory fantasy and sensation : a convincing code of “translation” allowed to return the original expressive richness. For the realization of this Cd the choice of a typical Italian instrument is not accidental, but it corresponds to the will of displaying an organ of middle dimension. It is an instrument that is Italian in the substance, but international in the “opening”. Nevertheless on this type of organ all the most celebrate Italian and foreign organ players have reproposed national and international pages of music. This Cd tries to return their insuperable poetry and their musical depth.

Three pieces for the Great Organ
(Fantaise en La – Cantabile – Pièce Héroique)

Composed in 1878, fifteen years after the collection of the Six Pièces pour Grand Orgue (1862), and performed for the new Cavaillé-Coll’s opening in Trocadero, well reflect the armonic and formal environment inside which Franck has a preference for moving: on one side anchoring to the tradition , on the other expressing through the use of modulations and recording. It is interesting to notice how these have differences with those written on the 1883’s edition and those on the author’s manuscript.

Three Chorals

Published posthumous, the Trois Chorals constitute an artistic and spiritual will of the author. Franck worked on them between august and september of 1890 during his convalescence because of a heavy accident. The manuscript, still unfinished, was on his bedside table. The wise development of the two themes in Primo and Terzo Corale captures the listener’s attention, projected in a game of thematic alternation. In the Secondo Corale, instead, the reutilization of an archaic form, like the Chaconne, recreates an intimistic enviroment. Not only the typical desire of “emotion” of the Nineteenth-century listener is satisfied by the beauty of melodic ideas and armonic richness, but also from the wise construction of the three pieces flows an emotional vortex, typical of the 18th.