Pièce héroïque in B Minor

Buttressed by resolute chords, the theme that launches Franck’s Pièce héroïque sounds foreboding rather than heroic. Composed in 1878, just a few years after the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War, the work’s “heroism” is decidedly not of the triumphalist kind—initially at least. The third of a set of three pieces, it was not written for ecclesiastical use but for the new Cavaillé-Coll instrument showcasing French organ-building prowess at the Exposition Universelle (World Fair) held in Paris that year—and it was Franck himself who gave the premiere. His fingerprints are all over it. Spaciously conceived, the Pièce héroïque revels in the orchestral possibilities of Cavaillé-Coll’s new instrument; and, tonally freewheeling between minor and major, the music is shot through with unsettling harmonies. At its heart is a serene hymn-like central section introduced by teasing figuration on the pedals. And eventually this insouciant little figure is expanded to engineer the return of the work’s sombre opening—before, all guns blazing, a fervent reaffirmation of the central chorale secures the last word.