Sonata Franckoniana (20016) available from SheetMusicPlus.

I have a love-hate relationship with the César Franck D Minor Symphony. It was the first large scale romantic work that I played as a member of a youth orchestra. I remember the thrill of being immersed in the overwhelming drama of the work. As I have returned to the piece over the years, I still love it, or rather I love parts of it. It is a very, very long work. It takes a while to get to the point. The point of the piece, to me, is the last movement. It is fast, exciting, maybe even joyous. The long, dark, angst-ridden build-up seemed profound to me as a teenager. I am less patient today. Now I wish Franck had simply started with the last movement. I decided to try rewriting the symphony myself. I would start with material from the last move- ment. I would use all of the basic musical material of the piece, but I would condense it down to ten to fifteen minutes of music. I had originally intended to leave the romantic character of the work intact. That intention didn't last very long. As I worked on the piece, it very quickly became more post-modern than romantic. I think that's fine. The profundity may be gone, but I think the piece is more fun this way. As I get older the scales of my life are tipping more and more toward fun and less and less toward profundity. It's kind of nice that, as I age, I see more fun ahead me even if that means I'm seeing profundity recede in the rear-view mirror. Sonata Franckoniana was written for oboist Jeanne Belfy, flutist Nicole Molumby, clarinetist Leslie Moreau, and pianist Barton Moreau. They premiered the work in the fall of 2015. A recording of the work appears on the CD Oboe Music of Robert Fruehwald with oboist Jeanne Belfy (available through iTunes).

Sonata Franckoniana, Les Boise Chamber Wind Players (excerpt).