César Franck was a 19th century Belgian-French composer and organist who was largely responsible for the shift in French compositional style to a more emotionally engaged and almost German sound. Born in 1822, Franck showed an early proficiency for music which allowed him to enroll in the Liège conservatory by the tender age of 8. By 1837 he had entered the Paris Conservatory, winning several awards for organ, fugue, and transposition. Franck enjoyed a prolific career as a virtuoso performer and eventual organ professor at the Paris Conservatory. His organ pupils were trained in compositional and improvisational techniques which led to a cultural shift in the French nationalistic style of composing. 

Franck’s Symphony in D Minor was composed towards the end of his life, and as such is regarded as one of his most mature and lasting works. The Symphony perfectly balances the Austro-German symphonic structure while still maintaining the French concern for balance and color. Franck employs a “cyclical construction” in this piece, meaning that themes from the work are referenced in other movements frequently. This cyclical approach was a technique Franck himself had pioneered in his early Piano Trio No. 1 in F-sharp minor. The work’s most recognizable moment comes in the Allegretto, with a memorable English Horn solo soaring over string and harp pizzicato. This movement, rather uniquely, functionally combines elements of slow movement and scherzo. It is followed by a boisterous and innovative finale. Sir John Manduell calls the melody upon which this finale is built “one of the most genuinely joyous and uncomplicated melodies Franck ever wrote.”