LDV176.8

21 ANDRÉ ISOIR The very title of the second of the Six Pieces of 1862 indicates quite explicitly that from now on the orchestra has entered the domain of the organ - the ‘symphonic’ organ built by Cavaillé-Coll. The Grande Pièce symphonique is not only the first work of such magnitude in French organ music, the equivalent of which can only be found in the output of Bach, but it is also the first organ symphony before Widor, Vierne and their contemporaries and successors. Dedicated ‘To his friend, Charles Valentin Alkan’, it is an enormous construction, played without a break, in three or four movements, according to the commentator - d’Indy saw three, and we are inclined to agree with his analysis. This first symphony for organ solo applies the design of the Beethoven sonata to organ music, but the form is revised by Franck according to his predilection for structural extremes that leads him to bring back the themes of one movement into another in a cyclic form. Here is the first theme of the first Allegro, in the minor, which in the major, serves as the pricipal theme of the finale.