Les Djinns is a famous horror poem by Victor Hugo about hellish nature spirits that swarm through the night while screaming. They are reminiscent of the fallen angels of Christianity, or the Watchers from the apocryphal Book of Enoch. In Hugo's poem, the hooligans bombard the narrator's house. Just Google the poem. In fact, the graphics are very evocative, as if a swarm were looming and disappearing
… again. The poem inspired several composers, including Fauré, Vierne and Franck. Franck did it in the form of a symphonic poem, with a virtuoso solo for the piano. Nice that it is included here, because Les Djinns (1884) is not among Franck's most performed works. Franck's style is not immediately recognizable here, which is the case with the beautiful Variations Symphoniques (also for piano and orchestra) from a year later. Both works for solo piano - Prélude, Chorale et Fugue & Prélude, Aria et Final - are also among Franck's best performances. (HJ)more
