EDUARD FRANCK (1817-1893): Piano Concertos No. 1 in D, Minor Op. 13 and No. 2 in C (First Recording).

Description: Franck increasingly emerged from the shadow of his models Schumann and Mendelssohn, and today he is honored less as a follower and more as a mediator between the generations who in his time anticipated many a new development by great masters such as Brahms and Bruckner. Franck’s D minor concerto from 1846, his first broadly dimensioned orchestral work, generates its appeal above with its imposing and stormy main themes and brilliantly virtuosic broken chords in the piano part. The second concerto recorded here was previously available only in a manuscript of the score and a piano reduction from 1879. The virtuosic interplay between the orchestra and the piano, is particularly notable. Georg Michael Grau (piano), Württemberg Philharmonic Reutlingen; Fawzi Haimor.