你好I don’t know of a single musical work that has provoked musicians and encouraged speculation quite the way Cesar Franck’s Piano Quintet has. To start with even Franck’s wife, Felicite damned it, (‘…that Quintet, ugh.”). Saint-Saens, to whom it was dedicated and the first performer of the piano part, walked off the stage in disgust after the first performance.

Even Franz Liszt, the great Wagner supporter and someone who usually championed new and untried music, pulled back. I’m not sure exactly why. With all the mistresses who traveled around when he performed, taste and discretion were not high on Liszt’s hierarchy of musical or personal virtues. Could he have felt threatened by the passion in Franck’s quintet’s opening movement?

So what was the source of a work that was so completely hated, and like nothing else Franck had written? The answer: Augusta Holmes, an 18-year old Irish student of Franck’s. Even Saint-Saens, a repressed homosexual, said about Augusta, “We were all in love with her.” The woman was hot. And Oh, did I mention that Franck was 57 at the time?

You might think that Franck’s friends and musical buddies were just playing the virtue card and lining up behind Felicite, the abused wife, which would explain why the piece was only performed rarely back then Today everybody knows about middle-aged crises and takes them in stride; the passion of a lovesick middle aged married man is no longer a shocker. But performances of the Franck have continued to be few and far between.

Liszt’s objections about Franck’s oversized emotions and the difficult piano writing have been echoed over by others since 1880. More than one pianist has confessed that after an overheated performance of the Franck, he could have used a stiff drink between movements just to cool down.

What’s in our player now: Franck: Piano Quintet: Borodin Quartet (Richter, piano) - Philips 432-142-2PH

In Richter’s hands this late 19th century erotic masterpiece is as mystical as it is passionate. Richter’s entry is almost otherworldly. While Franck’s mood swings back and forth; Richter lets a thousand flowers bloom and yet manages to bring out the depths. The supreme seriousness of his approach, and his refusal to go for the superficial effects is very impressive. Here is rock solid commitment and seriousness here as only Richter could do it – every singe note counts. It’s almost as though Beethoven or maybe Brahms had written the piece. Transcendent.