A Beethoven and Wagner lover par excellence, French composer Vincent d’Indy found himself between two countries powered by nationalism. Early in his career, during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 there was the group of composers called Les Six (I wrote about those before), later it was the Société musicale indépendante led by Ravel. To the end of his life d’Indy fought for German music in France.
Having said that, there is nothing German about this composition. It is based on a song he heard in the Cévennes. The melodie is played at the start, on an English horn. The work was at first written as a fantasy for piano and orchestra, but evolved to what some critics have called a symphony concertante. A symphony with a special role for the piano. It premiered in 1887 in Paris, played by the dedicatee, French pianist Marie-Léontine Bordes-Pène. She was the pianist that premiered many pieces by César Franck, the teacher of d’Indy. It is a small world.