tomekkobialka | LE CHASSEUR MAUDIT (The Accursed Huntsman) by César Franck @tomekkobialka | Uploaded May 2019 | Updated October 2024, 1 week ago.
pf: Riccardo Muti cond/ The Philadelphia Orchestra
Year composed: 1882
(arranged for two pianos by Pierre de Bréville, 1911)
Inspired by Burger's ballad "Der wilde Jäger" (The Wild Hunter).
STORY: "On a Sunday morning, as church bells summon the faithful to worship and sacred chants fill the air, the Count sets off on a hunt. Pious elders plead with him to call off his expedition, but he responds contemptuously and rides roughshod through the village farms, trampling crops and applying the whip to the peasants in his way. Eventually he finds himself lost in the woods, where a stern voice from unseen heights pronounces his sentence: "Accursed hunter, be thou eternally pursued by Hell!" The Count tries to flee, but flames surround him and his horse. Imps and demons pursue him, now goading him on, now blocking his path; through daylight and darkness the wild ride continues. Even when horse and rider fall into an abyss there is no respite; they are borne through the air to ride on and on in unremitting punishment for blaspheming the Lord's Day."
(Kennedy Center)
pf: Riccardo Muti cond/ The Philadelphia Orchestra
Year composed: 1882
(arranged for two pianos by Pierre de Bréville, 1911)
Inspired by Burger's ballad "Der wilde Jäger" (The Wild Hunter).
STORY: "On a Sunday morning, as church bells summon the faithful to worship and sacred chants fill the air, the Count sets off on a hunt. Pious elders plead with him to call off his expedition, but he responds contemptuously and rides roughshod through the village farms, trampling crops and applying the whip to the peasants in his way. Eventually he finds himself lost in the woods, where a stern voice from unseen heights pronounces his sentence: "Accursed hunter, be thou eternally pursued by Hell!" The Count tries to flee, but flames surround him and his horse. Imps and demons pursue him, now goading him on, now blocking his path; through daylight and darkness the wild ride continues. Even when horse and rider fall into an abyss there is no respite; they are borne through the air to ride on and on in unremitting punishment for blaspheming the Lord's Day."
(Kennedy Center)
