César Franck
Franck was now starting to compose the works which made him really famous.  He wrote a very large oratorio called Les Béatitudes.  Later he wrote a Piano Quintet and the symphonic poems Le chasseur maudit and Les Djinns.  His piano music included Prélude, choral et fugue and the Variations symphoniques.  In 1885 he was awarded the cross of the Legion d’honneur.  A year later he became president of the Société Nationale de Musique.  He wrote a Violin Sonata (1886) and a Symphony (1888), which are probably his two most famous compositions now.