The three tone poems of César Franck included here are not often heard, at least outside of France, but they're enjoyable for anyone. The choral version of Psyché, FWV 47, would be an ideal work for performance by civic orchestra-chorus combinations: it's a vivid programmatic piece that would appeal to general audiences and ordinary singers. It certainly benefits from the lush, rather deliberate performance it gets here from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Jean-Luc Tingaud, with the young choristers of the Royal ...
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The three tone poems of César Franck included here are not often heard, at least outside of France, but they're enjoyable for anyone. The choral version of Psyché, FWV 47, would be an ideal work for performance by civic orchestra-chorus combinations: it's a vivid programmatic piece that would appeal to general audiences and ordinary singers. It certainly benefits from the lush, rather deliberate performance it gets here from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Jean-Luc Tingaud, with the young choristers of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Voices seeming to respond to the work's erotic aspects (it depicts the meeting of Psyche and Eros in Greek mythology). The orchestra excels with the sparkling strings of this work and with the pastoral sounds of the opening Le Chasseur maudit, FWV 44, an especially Wagnerian depiction of a hunter plagued by demons. The concluding Les Éolides, FWV 43, is a lighter work, likewise referring to a mythological subject that 19th century French audiences would...
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