Early Organ Works / Fragments

Bärenreiter has joined forces with the International César Franck Society to produce a five-volume complete edition of the organ works of César Franck. In addition to all accessible sources, it draws on previously neglected manuscripts, making it possible to offer a reliable musical text based on meticulous text-critical comparisons. Text variants, cases of doubt and editorial decisions are recorded in a comprehensive Critical Commentary.

Volume 1, edited by Christiane Strucken-Paland, is the first publication to contain all of Franck’s surviving early organ works, fragments and variants. Special attention has been given to his largest early work, the Fantasy in A major, which was left unpublished during his lifetime and only resurfaced a few years ago. Here Franck already displays his consummate mastery of thematic development.