César Franck (1822-1890)

Lot 39
11.12.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1349712
Lot 39 | César Franck (1822-1890)
Estimate value
£ 4 000 – 6 000
César Franck (1822-1890)
Autograph manuscript signed ('C. Franck', at the end of each work), 'Deux Mélodies', two works for piano, [c.1846]
Notated in six systems of two staves, 13 pages, 335 x 255mm, stitched into a modern album, vellum-backed boards. Provenance: presented by the composer to his future wife, Félicité Desmousseaux (1825-1918: according to Julien Tiersot); Sotheby's, 22 November 1989, lot 90 (unsold).

Two early and apparently unpublished works for piano, composed for his fiancée. The 'Two Melodies' comprise an Andantino of 107 bars in D flat major and a 'Poco Lento' of 62 bars in E major. The manuscript was inspected by Julien Tiersot, who described it as follows (in 'Les oeuvres inédites de César Franck', La Revue Musicale, December 1922, 97-123): 'Without doubt belonging to the same period are the Two Melodies for piano, "À Félicité", of which the autograph manuscript, very finely written, signed "C. Franck" at the end of each piece, is the only survival: it is evidently a discreet present offered by the composer to his fiancée, Félicité Desmousseaux, whom he married in February 1848. Their style is excellent, clearly superior to the majority of the piano pieces published by the composer in the preceding years and which are generally pure specimens of virtuosity' (translation). The dedication 'À Félicité' is now missing and may have been on a wrapper. Not recorded in W. Mohr's Thematische Werkverzeichnis.
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