La Bande à Franck, Chapter 5

I am very excited to report that I will be presenting two programs this season of the music of the pupils of Franck. The first one will be on February 8th, 2026, at Wake Forest University, with pianist Mathilde Handelsman. At 3:00 PM

The program is one that I find immensely appealing:

1. Sonata in F major (1904) by Mélanie Bonis (1858-1937)

2. Sonata in a minor (1919) by Auguste Chapuis (1858-1933)

3. Sonata in d minor (1930) by Pierre de Bréville (1861-1949)

It seems that, because Bonis had been so utterly forgotten, she wasn't included in any of the books on Franck which I read, but her official biography on mel-bonis.com is quite specific on the subject of her early life and of her admittance to the Paris Conservatoire, as well as the account of her acceptance as a pupil by César Franck himself. What I don't understand is why Vincent d'Indy, in his chapter titled "The Artistic Family" in his biography of Franck, would have seen fit to discuss Augusta Holmès but not Ms. Bonis! My own theory on this subject is that the severe Monsieur d'Indy was most probably scandalized by the love affair which Bonis had been conducting while still a student at the Conservatoire. This caused the unfortunate young woman to be unceremoniously withdrawn from the school by her very Victorian family, and married off to a wealthy man 25 years her senior! That she continued to compose seriously for the rest of her life shows that she was made of sterner stuff than her family realized.

Auguste Chapuis is not well-known even in France, but he was, like most of his colleagues at the Conservatoire, an organist. He taught organ at the Paris Conservatoire from 1894 until 1923. He was a fairly successful opera composer, and his major work, "Enguerrande," was produced at the Opéra Comique in 1892.

I have written about Pierre de Bréville in Chapter 4 already, so I won't say any more about him here.

The 2nd program will be given at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. I have a tentative date of March 8th at 7:00 PM with pianist Bridget O'Leary. Each of the composers was a major organist. Thus, we have:

1. Sonata in C Major (1898) by Charles Tournemire (1870-1939) World Premiere

2. Sonata in f# minor, op. 46 in One Movement by Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937)

3. Sonata in b minor, op 27 by Louis Vierne (1870-1937)

Someday, someone will discover just why so many famous musicians died in 1937! Ravel, Gershwin, Szymanowski, Foote, Roussel, Widor, Vierne, and Pierné!

What's especially exciting about this program is the fact that the Tournemire Sonata was written 127 years ago, yet is most likely being given its very first performance! I obtained it from the French National Library in manuscript form, and I must thank Dr. Kurt Daniels of High Point, NC, for his tremendous labor in engraving the work and producing the very first edition! Oddly, the two middle movements were published as "Two Pieces, op. 5," but the outer two were not.

The Pierné Sonata from 1919 is a masterpiece of 20th-century chamber music and needs no introduction, at least not before my chapter about him, coming soon.

The Vierne Sonata has become rather popular in the last 20 years. I am so amazed that this blind composer was able to write so much great music using Braille! Not to mention all the Organ Symphonies. I will write about him in some later chapter since he was one of the last students of Franck.

La Bande à Franck, Chapter 4

I have been introducing each composer in chronological order so far, but I am so excited to talk about the great Pierre de Bréville that I decided to jump ahead just a tad! Born in Bar-le-Duc, a village approximately 150 miles southeast of Paris, on February 21, 1861, he was christened Pierre Eugène Onfroy de Bréville. Laurence Davies, writing in his masterful biography of Franck, has this to say:

"The musician who succeeded d'Indy as president of the Société Nationale de Musique, and who perhaps did most to ensure the further perpetuation of Franck's name, was Pierre Onfroy de Bréville." Only three of Franck's pupils survived beyond the 2nd World War: Fumet, Ropartz, and Bréville. He dutifully entered the local School of Jurisprudence to satisfy his parents' wishes. Still, this course of study held no interest for him, and he entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1880 as a student in the composition class of Thèodore Dubois. By 1882, Bréville was auditing Franck's organ classes, becoming a formal pupil of Franck's in that year.

Bréville became a professional organist upon his graduation from the Conservatoire, winning several prizes. Those on the jury were Dubois, Franck, Gigout, Guilmant, and others. After several years of writing Melodies, he wrote his first large-scale work, the oratorio Santa Rosa de Lima. He attempted to win the Prix de Rome but was disqualified because he was no longer a pupil at the Conservatoire.

Bréville attended, with a tenor friend, the Bayreuth Festival in 1888, where he met d'Indy, who was impressed with the young composer and dedicated one of his own melodies to him. The older composer attempted to introduce the young man to the great Wagner himself, but this did not take place because they found Wagner berating his vocal soloists. Later, in 1898, d'Indy invited Bréville to teach classes in counterpoint at the new alternative to the Conservatoire, the Schola Cantorum, which d'Indy and Charles Bordes founded as both a reaction and a rebuke to the exceedingly rigid old Conservatoire, which, under the direction of the autocratic Ambroise Thomas, avoided the teaching of, or research towards, early music. It was d'Indy's fiercely held position that a musician couldn't be considered complete until he or she had mastered 16th-century counterpoint. And it was d'Indy who personally supervised the edition of Vivaldi's complete works, the figured bass realized by d'Indy himself, as if he weren't already the busiest man in French music!

Pierre de Bréville with violinist Jacques Thibaud

After laboring mightily on his opera, Eros vainqueur, it still took years before he was able to secure a premiere. Still, it was only at the La Monnaie in Brussels, in 1910, and poor Bréville was obliged to wait a further 22 years before the Opéra-Comique finally mounted it in 1932. In the meantime, the composer didn't wish to waste any more time on writing for the theatre; he turned to writing instrumental and chamber music instead, and I believe he really found his true calling.

His solo piano music is masterful, and the style is a sumptuous amalgam of Franckian/Wagnerian chromatic harmony and the piano style of Liszt. But the composer really does move beyond the Franck tradition, using harmonies advanced enough that atonality has begun to creep into his language. Mr. Davies maintains that with Bréville's only piano Sonata, "it would be difficult to point to a better example than that written by de Bréville in 1923." He goes on to say that "Norman Demuth sees it as forming the apex of the Franck tradition.". The Sonata in D minor is in one movement. Other works include the Sept esquisses and the Stamboul Suite.

If he is remembered today, it is mainly for his five Sonatas for violin and piano, the Sonata for viola and piano, and the cello and piano Sonata of 1930, one of the best 20th-century sonatas, in my opinion.

I can share the recording below with my readers because it is my recording, and I own it! Below is the performance from 2011, which Linda Hall and I played at Symphony Space in New York for Elmira Darvarova's New York Chamber Music Festival.

Here is the first movement: Agité, et violent mais pas trop vite.

BREVILLE SONATA 1ST MVT. MAGILL_HALL 2011.m4a.zip

Download ZIP • 17.32MB

The second movement: Vif et lèger.

BREVILLE SONATA 2ND MVT MAGILL_HALL 2011 MASTER.m4a.zip

Download ZIP • 7.89MB

The third and 4th movements are attacca: Andante; Assez animé.

BREVILLE SONATA 3+4 MVTS. MAGILL_HALL 2011 MASTER.m4a.zip

Download ZIP • 25.06MB

One unique compositional technique that de Bréville employs is the utilization of the very lowest notes on both instruments, establishing a dark foreboding from the outset.

In addition to the Sonata, there are, for cello and piano, the Poëme dramatique from 1924, a rather large 15-minute single-movement work, and the Fantaisie appassionata from 1935; here one can hear the influence of Debussy, and it conjures a spellbinding world of dreams.

One last work I will mention is the Concert à trois from 1945, possibly his last work, and also unpublished. In 2010, I engraved the work on Finale after I received a copy of the manuscript from the French cellist Nadine Deleury, who was gracious enough to lend it to me for some months while I very clumsily tried to learn how to use the software! By the way, Nadine was the first and remains the only cellist to have recorded Bréville's cello and piano music! Brava! It seems that the final movement was probably unfinished at his death in 1949, as it is sparse writing, almost as if he hadn't had the time to flesh it out. Nevertheless, I find it just as ravishing as his other works, so here is a live video from the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, with my fabulous friends and colleagues Elmira Darvarova and Linda Hall.

La Bande à Franck, Chapter 3

Samuel Rousseau (1853-1904)

It's shocking to see just how many people died so young during the 19th century. Here is Mr. Samuel Rousseau, who passed away at the age of 51. In our day, we would consider this a real tragedy, but for a man born in 1853, this was somewhat normal because the medical profession had little to no ability to cure many diseases that we now consider largely extinct.

He was born in Neuve-Maison, the son of an organ builder. Laurence Davies considers Rousseau to have been Franck's most precocious pupil, having entered the Conservatoire at age 14. The teacher and student were to become intimate friends; Franck himself appointed Rousseau to be his choir master and general assistant at Sainte-Clotilde. Rousseau went on to win first prize in the Prix de Rome at the age of 25, for his cantata La fille de Jephté. As he was leaving for his 4-year Roman tuition, his opera, Dianorah, was accepted for production at the Opéra-Comique, an almost unprecedented success for such a young man. Among his other works are many pieces for organ and chorus, a few orchestral works, and the operas Merowig, La Cloche du Rhin, and a comedy titled Milia.

Organist and composer, Samuel Rousseau

Among Rousseau's chamber works is his Sonata for cello and piano in a minor from 1903. There is no record of it ever having been performed, though it must have been done at some point--there are no recordings at all, according to my research. It is notable for its cyclical form; indeed, all three movements are based on a single motive, comprising the notes C, A, C, B natural, and A. Such a simple and seemingly dry group of tones is reminiscent of Beethoven's (and also Franck's) monothematic works.

A composer's card sponsored by a chocolate company featuring Rousseau's opera, La Cloche du Rhin

Paul de Wailly (1854-1933)

Paul de Wailly

De Wailly was born at Amiens, initially studying law but switching to music, just as Chausson had done. According to Davies, Wailly was the most loyal and devoted disciple of Franck's, never deviating from the master's teaching. He was moderately successful as an operatic composer and also wrote a considerable amount of chamber music, most of which still remains in manuscript form at the French National Library. One exception is a massive piano quintet (80 Pages), which still awaits a first recording. Another is a charming Serenade for flute and string trio.

Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)

The most famous student of Franck's in our time is undoubtedly Chausson, that magnificently gifted musician who died so tragically young. He was born in Paris; his father, Prosper Chausson, was one of Baron Haussmann's building contractors. This meant that Ernest was raised in an affluent household, and as a result of the death of his two younger siblings, he was raised so protectively that he was tutored at home and forbidden to play outside with other children. As a probable result, Chausson became a melancholic child; this was carried through into adulthood, and as a composer he suffered from depression. He matriculated in law school at the University of Paris, graduating in 1877, and was appointed a barrister for the Court of Appeals, but never enjoyed this work. In 1879 he attended the Bayreuth Festival and took in Parsifal; as with most of his contemporaries, he was overwhelmed with Wagner's intoxicating score--while at the same time, Chausson began his formal musical studies with Massenet at the Conservatoire. While writing his early Piano Trio in g minor, op. 3, Chausson switched composition teachers and left Massenet to begin his studies with Franck. His first successful orchestral work is a symphonic poem called Viviane; this revealed his mastery of orchestration and his absorption of Wagnerian harmony.

After his marriage to the dedicatee of Viviane, Jeanne Escudier, the couple had five children. Chausson began laboring on music dramas, two of which he left incomplete at the time of his death. Chausson started working on his one major operatic success, Le Roi Arthus, in 1886, and it took him nine years to finish it. Other significant works include the unique Concert for solo violin, piano, and string quartet; the Poème for violin and orchestra, which has been a staple in the concert hall since its composition and is often paired with Ravel's Tzigane; and the great Symphony in B-flat.

Chausson's sole work for cello is his Pièce, op. 39, for cello and piano, and was among the last pieces of music the composer wrote. The entire 7-minute piece is tinged with his signature bittersweet melancholy. I'm surprised it hasn't become a staple of cello recitalists everywhere, but that is particularly due to many American cello professors who seem to lack the curiosity needed to expand the repertoire for cello and piano. I believe that this expansion is essential for the future of classical music. I will pose this question: Who really wants to hear another performance of Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata? When I was an undergraduate at the Peabody Institute, the only French cello works one ever heard were those by Debussy and Fauré. I find it promising that some women composers are finally receiving their due; the Sonata of 1905 by Franck's pupil Mélanie Bonis (1858-1937) is outstanding.

Ernest Chausson with his wife, Jeanne Escudier

It is interesting to note that Chausson was a close friend of the great Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931). Ysaÿe requested a violin concerto from Chausson, resulting in the Poème; below is a plaque placed on the exterior of the Nancy Conservatoire, where one of Franck's best students, Guy Ropartz, served as director.