César Franck was born in Liege, in Belgium.   At the age of 14, his father took him to Paris to study at the Paris Conservatoire. He was a better contrapuntist than his teachers there, and he was a serious Germanic sort of chap, his character was quite unlike the light-hearted frivolous nature of many composers in Paris at that time. So he was not accepted well, he was even resented somewhat.

He became a teacher, organist and composer, occasionally using cyclic form. Organ was his medium par excellence. Much of his most famous orchestral music was written after he attained the age of 50.  His Symphony in D minor is one example of these later works.