The Santa Barbara Symphony unveiled a newfound treasure at The Granada over the weekend — a thrilling piano concerto appearing from out of the past as if by magic.

The Piano Concerto No. 4 by Andre Mathieu was performed under the baton of Nir Kabaretti, with French-Canadian pianist Alain Lefevre as soloist. Composed in 1946-47, the work lay dormant until Lefevre rediscovered it a few years ago.

The pianist was given some old vinyl recordings of Mathieu playing his own compositions. Lefevre received these artifacts in Montreal after playing a concert with one of Mathieu’s few works known at the time. According to the program notes, a woman approached Lefevre after the concert, thrust a bag with the old recordings into his hands and said they rightly belonged with him.

Once Lefevre realized what was on them, he enlisted the help of Montreal conductor and composer Gilles Bellemare in putting the fragmented music together into a playable score.

The result was the three-movement concerto heard Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at The Granada, a stormily romantic work reminiscent of Sergei Rachmaninoff, yet unique. Rachmaninoff himself has been quoted as saying of Mathieu, “A genius, more so than I am.”

The audience roared its approval at the end of the work, and Lefevre came back for several curtain calls. He then sat back down at the piano and played one of his own compositions, Promenade Italienne from Jardins d’Images. Lefevre is a remarkable composer in his own right, as well as deserving praise for resurrecting the work of his tragic but brilliant countryman.

The second half of the program was devoted to the Symphony in D Minor of Cesar Franck. The theme of the concert was “Ooh-La-La,” belying the weight of both of the programmed works.

Franck devoted his life to teaching, to the organ and to his apparently happy domestic arrangement. He was considered a great organist, known for his stirring performances at St. Clotilde in Paris. His students included Vincent d’Indy, who sought to bring his works into prominence before Franck died in 1888.

The Symphony in D Minor, also in three movements, contains a wealth of beautiful and profound melodic passages, and the symphony played them accordingly. The haunting motif of the first movement is carried over into the following section.

The second movement features an English horn in a mournful theme above the accompanying plucked strings. The two early movements are recapitulated in the stirring D-major finale, the third movement. Here, the full orchestra rises to a fittingly Gallic conclusion.

When the French speak of “la gloire,” they are referring to their country’s place in history. Franck was, by all accounts, a modest man, but his music can be seen as a fitting artistic expression of “la gloire.”

— Margo Kline covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor.