Jean-Efflam Bavouzet & Kodály Quartet A Zeneakadémia saját szervezésű programja

The Parisian audience, so sensitive to etiquette and the most minute of gestures, were astonished when they saw that on completing César Franck’s quintet in F minor, the pianist quit the stage ‘accidentally’ leaving behind his own sheet copy of the music on the piano rest. Many interpreted this gesture as a sign of contempt for the work, which was all the more ill-mannered because the pianist in question was actually a composer himself and the work itself was dedicated to him! The behaviour of Camille Saint-Saëns (and we will never know whether his actions were deliberate or not) has thus entered the annals of music history as a “minor scandal that overshadowed the world premiere of the Franck quintet”. If the work had debuted not in Paris but instead in Berlin or Leipzig, perhaps in the company of pieces by Mendelssohn and Schumann, then not only would the journals of the day not have reported on circumstances overshadowing the premiere, but they wouldn’t have covered the lukewarm reception the piece received either. Instead, it could be expected that the public would have taken the quintet to their heart as a work that bears a close affinity to the chamber music of German Romanticism. Among the many possibilities offered by this recital by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and the Kodály Quartet, we may also like to ponder this conundrum.