César Franck, composer, pianist, organist and music teacher, completed Cupid and Psyché, his sixth and last symphonic poem in 1887. It was first performed in Paris in 1888 and was a complete success, but the piece later fell completely into oblivion, and it was only thanks to some meticulous research that it has returned to concert halls.

The intricate love affair between Psyche and Cupid is an original story of the Metamorphoses written in the 2nd century AD by Apuleius. The tale is ab...