Psyché, by César Franck,
at the New York Philharmonic,
Lincoln Center, New York.
Psyché, the last and most ambitious of César Franck’s
poèmes-symphoniques, has had more than its share of bad luck.
The piece was initially welcomed by critics when first performed in 1888,
and was subsequently admired by
biographers and commentators, but Psyché has never found a secure
place in the repertoire.
Part of the problem lies in the genre. Unlike operas and
symphonies, which more easily transcend their period, the
symphonic poem is very much a phenomenon of
the nineteenth century. It impresses most modern listeners as
sprawling, sentimental, and without structure.
Psyché has also had its own particular problems, the most
prominent of which was the physical deterioration of the
orchestral sheet music.
Kurt Masur, laboring over the last several years to reconstitute the
score, has
tried to rehabilitate this fine work.
Sadly his success was only partial. Though the entire
piece received its New York premiere in October, Psyché has still
not shaken its curse.
The legend of Psyche can be found in
The Golden Ass
of Apuleius. Venus,
goddess of beauty, is jealous of Psyche (“more beautiful than
Beauty itself”) and sends her son Eros to dispatch her
earthbound competitor. Eros, however, has other ideas. Unknown
to Venus and unseen by Psyche, Eros persuades the West Wind to
waft Psyche to
a garden where, as Apuleius delicately
tells
us, “ut est natura redditum, novitas per