Cesar Franck: Preludes, Fugues & Chorals

Given the paucity of César Franck’s piano music on disc, Nikolai Lugansky’s focus on this composer is to be commended. On his third release for harmonia mundi, the Russian pianist reveals an organ master strongly attached to the musical forms inherited from J.S. Bach: the prelude, the fugue, and the chorale. Translated to the piano keyboard, Franck’s music, with its expansively conceived structures, requires a completely fresh approach that puts the greatest performers to the test: here, Lugansky took on an additional challenge by preparing his own transcription (a brilliant one, at that!) of Franck’s celebrated Choral pour grand orgue No.2.

There is much fine piano playing here. Nikolai Lugansky not only storms Franck’s barns with authority and rich tone but in the quieter passages finds a tenderness for which the composer has not always been given due credit. — BBC Music Magazine, June 2020