César Franck’s only symphony came at a time when the French music world was seeking to rival the great Austro-German tradition. The ‘darkness-to-light’ narrative of the Symphony in D minor owes a debt to Beethoven and there is a unique power within its distinctive themes, innovative cyclic form and general gravitas. Franck’s student Ernest Chausson was no doubt inspired by his teacher’s thematic metamorphoses, but the anguished influence of Wagner is also ever present. The published score of the Symphony in B flat major includes many errors which conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud has meticulously corrected after careful study of Chausson’s autograph manuscripts.

César Franck’s Symphony in D minor is rightly considered one of the greatest French orchestral works of the late 19th century but, surprisingly, it has rarely if ever been coupled with his pupil Chausson’s Symphony in B flat major. For this work, conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud has compared original manuscripts with the published edition and has corrected numerous errors. These include significant discrepancies in tempo relationships and other major mistakes in the published score, and the results will be of interest to scholars and record collectors alike.

The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin is one of Berlin’s top orchestras, and ranked in the highest echelon of German radio orchestras. Its Naxos albums include JoAnn Falletta’s recording of Franz Schreker’s Der Geburtsdag der Infantin Suite (8573821), which was an American Record Guide Critic’s Choice, and had BBC Music Magazine admiring how these ‘stirring sumptuous performances show off Schreker’s lush scoring and vivid orchestral picture-painting’.

Jean-Luc Tingaud studied with the French conductor Manuel Rosenthal. Orchestras he has conducted include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, the Warsaw and Kraków Philharmonics, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Orchestre National de Lyon, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the orchestras of the Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa and the Teatro Massimo, Palermo. His recordings include Sapho (Wexford), Werther (Martina Franca), La Voix humaine (Compiègne) and Le Siège de Corinthe (Bad Wildbad) and, most recently for Naxos, works by Dukas (8573296), Bizet (8573344), D’Indy (8573522), Poulenc (8573739), Franck (8573955) and Massenet (8574178).