Charles Gounod - Danse roumaine for Pedal Piano and Orchestra (1888)

Charles-François Gounod (17 June 1818 – 18 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been Faust (1859); his Roméo et Juliette (1867) also remains in the international repertory. He composed a large amount of church music, many songs, and popular short pieces including his Ave Maria (an elaboration of a Bach piece), and Funeral March of a Marionette.

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Danse roumaine, CG. 521 (1888)
Dedication: Camille Érard
Orchestral score by the composer (1896)

Roberto Prosseda, pedalier piano and the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, conducted by Howard Shelley
Hyperion CDA67975

Here is a link to the live performance of Gounod's Pedalier Concerto with Roberto Prosseda at the piano
https://youtu.be/vW9mhB5qm70?si=uXWrXGzGy4zvzjEO

The Danse roumaine was premiered in Paris by Lucie Palicot during the winter of 1888–9, when the composer informs us, it was encored, but it remains unpublished. The work is cast in sonata form with an orchestral introduction that outlines the themes. Then a furious toccata for pedal-board alone sweeps the orchestra along with it, and the first theme—a simple cell, energetic and piquant, in D minor without leading note—makes its appearance. It has a whiff of eastern Europe about it, no more than that. Modulating variations lead to the second theme, which runs up and down the scale of F major in dotted rhythms, supported by a viola countermelody.

A furious outburst from the piano launches the development: a folk-like motif combining woodwind and percussion frames further exchanges on the opening motif of the first theme; the latter’s reappearance heralds a recapitulation in which the second theme, introduced by trumpet calls, undergoes considerable development until the advent of a vigorous coda.

The resources of the pedal piano, designed to allow organists to practise outside church, were turned to advantage by Schumann, Liszt, and especially Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888), who gave virtuoso performances in the salons of the piano manufacturer Érard. Gounod was present there in 1875 to hear him premiere a Fantaisie by Saint-Saëns. Just ten years later, having given up operatic composition for sacred music (masses, oratorios) and the instrumental repertory (the Petite symphonie, string quartets), Gounod himself wrote four works for the pedal piano. These pieces representative of his late style were inspired by the talent of the young Lucie Palicot (born circa 1860), a pupil of Alexandre Guilmant on the organ and Élie Delaborde on the piano. The latter, who was the natural son of Alkan, may have guided her towards the study of the pedal piano at a time when his father was renouncing public performance. On 6 March 1882, Lucie Palicot played music by Bach, Alkan and Guilmant at the Salle Pleyel.
The visual spectacle was as appealing as the talent of the artist. The musicologist Paul Landormy later recalled the scene: ‘I remember what a strange impression was produced by the sight of this graceful and dainty person perched on a huge case containing the lower strings of the pedal-board beneath a grand piano resting on the aforementioned case; and what surprised us above all, pleasantly enough to be sure, was to see Mme Palicot wearing a short knee-length skirt (entirely necessary, but astonishing in those days), and her pretty legs darting most adroitly to reach the different pedals of the keyboard she had at her feet, very similar to an organ pedal-board.’ Lucie Palicot (née Schneckenburger) seems to have given up her career in 1895 when she embarked on her second marriage, to David Gilmon Henderson.