LDV113-4

32 FRANCK The choice of tempi in Franck’s works has also evolved considerably. Tempo is at once a personal choice and the consequence of parameters external to the performer, such as the nature of the instrument, the acoustics of the venue, and so forth. However, the most important thing is not the tempo, but the character of the work. There is, in fact, a ‘range of possible tempi’, beyond which it seems to me that the character and the intentions of the composer are distorted. Listening to the Fantaisie in A or the Choral no.1, I’m fascinated to see how Franck transforms the character so quickly from one phrase to another, as if he were changing a stage set. And listen to the way he prepares the listener for the appearance of a new theme by means of subtle anticipations. The themes in his pieces are like the protagonists in a play. And the secondary musical ideas are also of central importance, like the soubrettes in Molière’s plays: they ensure continuity, they bind the whole edifice together. But all these contrasts, these different characters disappear if you play everything too fast.