If Bach was a Romantic (well, he did have a lot of kids...) - Franck's Prelude, Chorale and Fugue

So, any time that the words "Prelude and Fugue" are mentioned in the keyboard world, the three names that spring to mind are Johann, Sebastian, and Bach, and rightly so. He set the standard for the form with his Well-Tempered Clavier (books 1 and 2), and his influence in the form would be almost impossible to escape (not that anyone would want to.)

Cesar Franck's Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue is an expansion of the Prelude and Fugue form that Bach devised both in terms of form and content. The most obvious difference is that Franck's work contains a chorale, another form Bach worked extensively in - which serves to connect the prelude and fugue in a more linear fashion in Franck's work. Franck also expands the form by incorporating more romantic textures and harmonies, but still maintains a harmonic structure that would be both sensible and functional in Bach's time. He also employs a similar length motive in his fugue, unlike Beethoven, who wrote extensive motives. It is also notable just how long this prelude, chorale and fugue is. Even not taking the extra section into account, this piece is substantially longer than the preludes and fugues that bach would have written for the keyboard.

Franck's work also seems to shift character quite a bit more than Bach's would have. In this sense, his Prelude, Chorale and Fugue is reminiscent of Mendellsohn's work in the same idiom. The intensity of Franck's work is inescapable, building through the prelude and choral to an emotionally intense fugue that is at once a challenge for the player as well as the listener.