César Franck
César Franck’s music carries the weight and colour of the Romantic organ loft into symphony, chamber music and song. The Violin Sonata, Symphony in D minor, organ Chorales and Pièce héroïque, and the serene Panis angelicus remain central to the repertoire he shaped.
French Romantic composer, organist and teacher, Franck wrote with the grandeur and flexibility of the Cavaillé-Coll instruments he played and demonstrated. His organ works—the Six Pièces, Trois Pièces, Pièce héroïque and the three Chorales—treat the instrument as a full orchestra: cyclic themes, rich harmony and long-breathed lines that move from contemplative stillness to blazing climax. The same architecture drives the Symphony in D minor, the Piano Quintet and the Symphonic Variations. The Violin Sonata unfolds as continuous song, its final canon both intimate and radiant. Sacred pieces such as Panis angelicus distil that warmth into pure lyric simplicity. Across genres the voice is unmistakable: serious, generous, and built to last.
Compositions by César Franck appear on
Timeless
The title Timeless marks Tamara Smolyar’s personal reading of classic piano works she has lived with since childhood, offered for family and listeners alike, and the music’s power to cross generations and cultures.
Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields
Fifteen historic organs from the Ballarat region are heard on this disc, released to mark the 2005 Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields festival. A fully illustrated 16-page booklet surveys the builders, churches, instruments, music and performers.
Organ Miniatures
A collection of 33 short organ works on the 1882 T.C. Lewis organ at St George’s Uniting Church, East St Kilda. The programme samples music written for small pipe organs and harmoniums, from Baroque chorales to twentieth-century miniatures.
The Star of the Sea
A superb programme of Italian and French organ favourites, shaped to draw on every resource of the celebrated George Fincham grand organ at St Mary's Star-of-the-Sea, West Melbourne.
A Recital of organ music from St. Paul's Cathedral Melbourne
The works on this recording span some eighty years of organ writing. Three come from the latter half of the nineteenth century; the remaining three were written in the first half of the twentieth.
Dream Song
A charming collection of well-known songs, sure to delight. Immortal sacred favourites sit beside theatre and film themes, from Franck’s Panis Angelicus and Lloyd Webber’s Pie Jesu to Blake, Rodgers and Bart.