The
Danse lente was written in 1885 for a volume of dances published by the journal
Le Gaulois, and it is the only other mature solo piano piece written by Franck apart from the two triptych works. The piece has a haunting, mysterious grace even if, to paraphrase (reluctantly) Saint-Saëns’ bitter comment, it is neither a
Danse nor particularly
Lente. In fact Franck’s marking ‘Quasi Lento’ tends to emphasize this. One point of interest is the direct quote from bar 21 of the Prelude, Aria and Finale in bar 5 of the
Danse lente.
from notes by Stephen Hough © 1997
