"Sonate transcrite pour piano à 2 et 4 mains par Alfred Cortot.... A 4 mains." Annotated engraved pre-publication proof copy of Alfred Cortot's arrangement of the Franck Sonata for Violin and Piano, as arranged for two pianos, with autograph title pages and corrections in the Cortot's hand in ink or blue pencil throughout. Upright folio. 13.75 x 9.87 inches (35 x 25 cm.). Parts for Primo and Secondo Piano on facing pages, complete in four movements with continuous pagination and three separate autograph title pages in the hand of Alfred Cortot. Engraved throughout. [PN] 5067 (1-4). [1] ("No 1 / Corrigé - Alfr. Cortot / dernière epreuve - Bon a tirer après correcti[ons]"); 3 - 9 pp; [1] ("No II / Corrigé - Alfr. Cortot / dernière epreuve - Bon a tirer après corrections"); 10 - 31 pp; [1] ("Nos III et IV / dernière epreuve corrigé Alfr. Cortot / Bon a tirer après corrections"); 32  -57 pp. Unbound, thin paper in fragile state with heavy wear to edges, heavily chipped edges with tears and gaps in the margins particularly in the first and final pages, else fine. These proof copies gifted by Cortot to Georges Franck, son of the composer.

One of the 20th century’s most influential — yet inimitable — classical figures, Alfred Cortot was born in 1877 in Switzerland to a French father and a Swiss mother, and he based his long career as a pianist, conductor and teacher in Paris. Cortot was one of history's most renowned interpreters of Franck, his best recordings setting an enduring standard and his 1910 book L’Œuvre pianistique de César Franck  remaining an important resource regarding the composer's music.  Cortot often played the Franck Sonata in recitals and made a historic recording in 1923 with violinist Jacques Thibaud (1880–1953).  He published two arrangements of the work, one for solo piano and the present one for two pianos.  

The Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano by César Franck is one of his best-known compositions, and is widely considered one of the finest sonatas for violin and piano ever written. Composed in 1886, when César Franck was 63, as a wedding present for the 28-year-old violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, it is an amalgam of his rich native harmonic language with the Classical traditions he valued highly, held together in a cyclic framework.