Choral No 3 - Franck

Trois pieces - Franck

A touchstone of any concert devoted to one composer lies in the performer's ability to persuade you that you are entering that composer's world. Listening to David Adams play Franck at the Pro-Cathedral at lunchtime last Wednesday felt like a visit to the church of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris, where Franck was organist for over 30 years until his death in 1890.

A generation ago Franck was, by general consent, regarded as the best composer of organ music in the 19th century. Since then his star has waned as those of Mendelssohn, Rheinberger and Reger have risen. Yet this recital made me think that the old opinion was not entirely wrong.

The Trois pieces of 1878 and the third of the Trois chorals of 1890 include some of Franck's best organ music. There were interpretative details over which one might quibble; but this recital included some of the most satisfying Franck I have heard in many years - and he is among the most performance-sensitive of composers.

Excellent organ management and a certainty of where each event was heading made the flawed but impressive Fan taisie (number one of the Trois pieces) sound unusually persuasive. And in every piece there was an absorbing balance between the impassioned moment and that sense of constantly unwrapping beautiful, technically impeccable discoveries which was, it seems, characteristic of the composer's improvisations.

David Leigh plays at the Pro-Cathedral next Wednesday at 1.15 p.m.