Franck Ravel

César Franck (1822–1890) grew up in Liège, around the time when Belgium received its independence (in 1830). Franck lived in Paris for most of his life, where for many years he worked as an organist. Opera was the dominant form of music in France, but Franck strove to raise the status of instrumental music. He wrote his most celebrated work, his Symphony in D minor, in 1888, at the end of his life; it became one of the most popular symphonies in the orchestral repertoire in the decades that followed. In it, Franck combines elements from both French and German musical tradition, and the references to Beethoven are particularly pronounced.

Maurice Ravel’s (1875–1937) Daphnis et Chloé had its premiere as a ballet in 1912 in Paris. Many of the greatest artistes of the time were involved in the production, including the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky and the choreographer Michel Fokine. The preparations were dogged by conflict, and Ravel spent a whole year perfecting the final ballet. The end result was a masterful work of orchestral magnificence of which the world had hardly ever heard the equal. The love story of Daphnis and Chloe is taken from a Greek pastoral novel that is believed to have been written in the 2nd century AD.