Grande Pièce Symphonique, Op.17, FWV 29, is an organ work by French composer and organist César Franck.
The Six Pièces are an important work of the composer, marking the beginning of the second period of his career[2] and predicting the flowering in his later creative life.
[3] His long struggle on the comic opera Le Valet de ferme (1851–1853) ended with a disastrous failure of the production and a disappointment, which paralysed Franck's activity as a composer for several years.
[1][n 1] Grande pièce symphonique is written in a single movement, which may be divided into three parts, the second of them being the Andante with a scherzo-like middle section.
[6] The work's dedicatee, the virtuoso pianist and composer Charles Valentin Alkan, had written a symphony for solo piano a few years earlier, as part of the Douze Études dans tous les tons mineurs, Op.
Andantino serioso 4/4 F-sharp minor The work starts with an introduction, presenting the thematic material, which will determine the piece.
"Beaucoup plus largement que précédemment" 4/4 F-sharp major The third movement begins with a recapitulation of themes from the previous parts, in a similar way as Beethoven did in the finale of his ninth symphony.