At the tender age of 15, Francis Poulenc was introduced to a circle of daring French composers that included Eric Satie and Georges Auric. The experience no doubt left a mark on the young composer, whose style is wonderfully eclectic and ever challenging throughout. Poulenc became a member of this circle, a celebrated group of French composers that also included such luminaries as Arthur Honnegger and Darius Milhaud. Nicknamed "Les Six," they changed the face of French music forever. This recording, the fourth in a series dedicated to the chamber music of Poulenc, offers a healthy cross-section of the composer's work in the genre, with particular attention paid to his vocal works. Poulenc's music is dizzyingly eclectic, and this recording of chamber music includes his celebrated "cantate profane," 'Le Bal masquè.' The delicious whimsy of 'Le Bal masquè' comes to life in a superb performance by baritone Franck Leguérinel and a talented instrumental ensemble. Purely instrumental works are included as well, including the rarely heard 'Sarabande for guitar,' played by Pierre Laniau with a sensitivity that captures the work's dreamy spirit.
Dalasinfoniettan, formed in 1988 and with 28 full-time musicians, is based in Falun in central Sweden and has a mission to cover the whole region of Dalecarlia with annual concerts in a variety of venues with repertoire spanning from baroque to contemporary music and jazz. Occasionally they also join forces with other orchestras to perform large-scale symphonic works, and sometimes the orchestra divides into smaller chamber ensembles. Dalasinfoniettan regularly invites internationally acclaimed soloists and guest conductors such as Janine Jansen, Benjamin Schmid, Daniel Raiskin, Vilde Frang, Torleif Thedéen, Malena Ernman, Michael Schønwandt and Leif Ove Andsnes to perform with the orchestra. Since 2006 Dalasinfoniettan hosts the international chamber music festival Vinterfest. This release features the ensemble performing works by Poulenc, Ligeti, and Mats Larsson Gothe.
Poulenc: Complete Chamber Music Vol 2 / Tharaud, Mourja, Etc
Naxos
CD
$19.99May 01, 2000
Francis Poulenc reportedly felt uncomfortable writing for piano and strings and had harsh things to say about both the violin and cello sonatas, remarks duly parroted by critics and biographers ever since. And yet the fact remains that they are his most ambitious, lengthiest, and emotionally complex chamber works. As so often happens in these circumstances, it's much easier to regurgitate received opinion than it is to actually listen to the music and take it on its own terms.
Alexandre Tharaud, whose superb pianism enlivened Volume I of this ongoing series, plays this music with a freshness, seriousness, and bigness of gesture that reveals its greatness at every point. In the Violin Sonata, he and his partner Graf Mourja really do make the finale a "Presto tragico" rather than a series of cartoon episodes. Similarly, the four-movement Cello Sonata, Poulenc's largest chamber work, is so strongly projected and sensitively balanced that the composer's reservations simply vanish. The Clarinet Sonata, of course, is "classic" Poulenc: Tharaud and Ronald Van Spaendonck have a ball both with its suavity and its caustic wit. When Poulenc writes "très rude" over the solo part, that's exactly what we get. The recording is extremely vivid: close up, in your face, and a bit dry--ideal for this music. Bring on Volume 3! [4/30/2000] --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
The NFM Choir from Wroclaw juxtaposes Penderecki and French composers, creating a dialogue between Polish and French music of the 20th century, between the singers from Wroclaw, where the choir is based, and Frenchman Lionel Sow, it's conductor since 2021. The program opens with Krzysztof Penderecki's Le Chant des chérubins, a piece composed in 1986 based on a text from the Orthodox liturgy. This is followed by a composition by French composer Yves Daniel-Lesur, a twelve-part Cantique des Cantiques composed in 1953. In 1962, Penderecki completed a Stabat Mater of a purely religious nature, a declaration of opposition to the communist system and it's visceral atheism, but also to Western avant-garde circles, which were equally uninterested in the sacred. Fast forward to the 2000s with Nigra sum by composer and mezzo-soprano Caroline Marçot, who is very interested in Renaissance music. If there is one thing that Poulenc's Salve Regina, composed in 1941, and Penderecki's Agnus Dei, written forty years later, have in common, it is simplicity and a form of contemplation that can also be found in Olivier Messiaen's O sacrum convivium, composed in 1937.
Vers la vie nouvelle - the title of this program - is more than just the name of a piano piece by Nadia Boulanger. It symbolizes a new direction in early 20th-century music: a quiet but determined departure. At it's heart are three female composers who forged their own musical paths against traditional role models and social resistance. Evgenia Nekrasova belongs to a well-known family of musicians in Minsk and graduated from the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory with a diploma. She then went on to study at the Cologne University of Music (graduating with honors).
Danae Dörken wants to show with her production that music is a place where all people are lifted to the same level – no matter what their origin or cultural background is. The focus is on the connecting element of music between all possible cultures and the folkloristic character of the works, emphasizing the peculiarities of each culture that makes it unique. Called “the discovery of the year” by classical music magazine crescendo and “on her way to the very top” by Concerti magazine, German-Greek pianist Danae Dörken is, at age twenty-six, among the elite of internationally acclaimed artists of a new generation, electrifying audiences and peer musicians alike with her stunning technical skills, exceptional charisma and great profundity of her musical thinking.
Poulenc: The Sacred Music For Unaccompanied Choir / Marlow
Conifer Records
CD
$17.99Sep 08, 2010
An assured and impressive performance, with expressive dynamic shadings, pure intonation, and intelligent phrasing.
...John Rutter and Richard Marlow with their Cambridge choirs here cover all Poulenc's sacred choral music except the Stabat mater... Both sets of performances are very good, with fine balance, expressive dynamic shadings, pure intonation, intelligent phrasing and excellent enunciation—so good that it seems a pity their programmes should overlap for the Penitential and Christmas motets and the three others. The main difference between them is that the acoustics of Trinity College chapel are more resonant than that of University College School hall, used by Rutter (though this has certainly no lack of warmth): as a result, the College choir, already splendidly firm of voice, produces a notably rich sonority... The Regent Chamber Choir...snatches off ends of phrases too abruptly. This habit is very marked in Poulenc's angular and Stravinskyan Mass, in which weight and fullness of tone are lacking in the men (e.g. at the start of the "Gloria"), as becomes very obvious when compared with Marlow's assured and impressive performance (with a very sweet-toned soprano in the "Agnus Dei").
-- Gramophone [10/1988, comparing this CD with Collegium 506 and Regent/Target 101]
This collection of piano works is a journey through the music that represents the years spanning the end of the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s. It is a varied itinerary, marked by that typically Parisian ésprit nouveau that captured the most diverse influences: popular music, jazz, exoticism, quotes from popular tradition, songs, circus exhibitions. At that time in fact the divide between cultured and light music came down as new forms of entertainment blossomed, different from those proposed by the great institutions. Cradles of this change were the artistic cabarets, the cafés-concerts, the music halls, the tabarins, but also bistrots, taverns, bookshops, and all the places where intellectuals and artists met. This release offers an historical playlist imbued with the mood of that time, alternating the energy and joie de vivre with more melancholic moods. For the centrality of his figure and the originality of his works, the fruit of a constant process of renewal, Erik Satie is present here with six works which represent several stages in his amazing creative parabola. Dario Müller has performed in concert for important institutions and has collaborated with Dynamic since 1984.
One of the pioneers of the 20th-century resurrection of interest in the harpsichord was the great virtuoso Wanda Landowska who assisted in the development of a harpsichord built by Pleyel of Paris. Performing on a 1930s Pleyel harpsichord, Christopher Lewis has chosen a program of 20th-century works by French or French-based composers. Poulenc's colourful Suite française is followed by Françaix's exciting and previously unrecorded Deux Pièces. Martinu's lyricism and intensity of expression can be heard in the Sonata and other pieces while Louis Durey's piquant Dix Inventions is both a homage to Bach's Two-Part Inventions and a work whose compositional technique is firmly rooted in the modern era.
Fantasque: French Violin Sonatas by Fauré, Debussy, Ravel &
Audite Musikproduktion
CD
$20.99May 08, 2020
... A magic floats above everything [encompassing the whole work]... (Paris, 1877, Journal de Musique) The second album by Franziska Pietsch and her Spanish piano partner Josu de Solaun is dedicated to the multifaceted world of French violin sonatas. With their usual aplomb and artistic intensity, the duo explore emotional landscapes complementing those of their previous album. Moving on from the exuberant revelry, serious tragedy and brutal reality of the sonatas by Strauss and Shostakovich, the musicians are now roving between the poles of dream and reality. Real experiences and emotions are reflected in a visionary dream world, external reality is mirrored internally. Inner emotions and images become reality via the music, triggering new emotions: dream and reality mirror each other. Faure, Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc create this "mirror world" in diverse ways. The common theme is the fantastical, the magic of imagination, the poetic distance to reality and the intensive engagement with inner emotions. Thus the dream world becomes a retreat - for listeners and artists alike.
This new release is a showcase of French masterworks by composers including Debussy, Ravel, and more. Kathleen Karr is the Principal Flutist of the Louisville Orchestra and Flute Professor at the University of Louisville. In 2012, she was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Professor Award for the University of Louisville. At the University of Louisville, Kathleen teaches all applied flute students , flute ensemble, flute studio class, flute literature, flute pedagogy, chamber music coaching and performs with the faculty woodwind quintet. A frequent soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, Kathleen has most recently performed the Mozart G Major Flute Concerto with the Louisville Orchestra during the 2014-15 season. Kathleen has taught flute and chamber music at the Interlochen Arts Camp (Interlochen, Michigan), Bellarmine University, Centre College (Danville, Kentucky) and Indiana University Southeast. Dr. Denine LeBlanc teaches music in the Jefferson County Public School system where she has taught for over twenty-five years. From 1978 until its closure in the spring of 2020, she taught piano in the Community Music Program at the University of Louisville School of Music.
On the final installment of it's Requiem series, the Flemish Radio Choir tackles Poulenc's iconic Stabat Mater (1950) and Alfred Desenclos' Requiem (1963), stunning works which steer clear of the typical Requiem horrors to convey a message of hope. Teaming up with the Brussels Philharmonic, the Flemish Radio Choir and it's acclaimed chief Herve Niquet extract the emotional and rhetorical essence of music which is eminently French, unusually tender, and delicately majestic. Since 1937, the Vlaams Radiokoor has been a reference for vocal music, both in Flanders and in Europe. The voice is the ultimate interpreter of our emotions, and the choir is one of it's greatest ambassadors.
Black Pierrot / Crabb, Freund, University of Missouri University Singers, Mizzou New Music Ensemble
Centaur Records
CD
$8.99$17.99Save 50%Jun 18, 2021
This is a program of great choral works, including one work from the 1500s, works from the 20th Century, and one work, Black Pierrot that was commissioned by R. Paul Crabb for the ensembles on this album. R. Paul Crabb, University of Missouri's Director of Choral Activities, earned degrees in Music Education, Vocal Performance and Choral Music Education. His ensembles have performed at state, regional and national conventions and have traveled extensively in Mexico, Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Russia, Bulgaria and Australia. Crabb served as assistant conductor at the Russian/American Choral Symposium for two years where his choir was invited as the resident American choir at the Moscow Conservatory. He served for one year as a visiting professor in Salzburg, Austria, where he taught and worked with the choir of the Salzburg Cathedral. He has taught conducting in Taiwan, eighteenth-century music in England, and studied sixteenth century polyphony in Italy with the renowned Peter Phillips. More recently he served as Guest Visiting Choral Professor at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary - the first American selected for that position.
Reason In Madness - Songs & Arias / Sampson, Middleton
BIS
SACD
$21.99Apr 05, 2019
Throughout history men have feared madwomen, burning them as witches, confining them in asylums and subjecting them to psychoanalysis – yet, they have also been fascinated, unable to resist fantasizing about them. For their new release, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton have created a programme that explores the responses of a variety of composers to women whose stories have left them vulnerable and exposed. As a motto they have chosen an aphorism by Nietzsche: ‘There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness.’ Brahms’ Ophelia Songs, composed for a stage production of Hamlet, appear next to those by Richard Strauss and Chausson, while Ophelia's death is described by both Schumann (in Herzeleid) and Saint-Saëns. Goethe’s mysterious and traumatized Mignon appears in settings by Hugo Wolf as well as Duparc, while his ill-used Gretchen grieves by her spinning-wheel in Schubert's matchless setting. Sadness and madness tip into witchery and unbridled eroticism with Pierre Louÿs's poems about Bilitis, set by Kœchlin and Debussy. Sampson and Middleton end their recital as it began, with a suicide by drowning: in Poulenc’s monologue La Dame de Monte-Carlo, the elderly female protagonist has been unlucky at the gambling tables and decides to throw herself into the sea.
Poulenc: Mass in G Major… / Elora Festival Singers
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Mar 10, 2015
One thing choirs who’ve sung Francis Poulenc’s choral works know is that he wasn’t concerned about making it easy for singers. Yet, unlike some other composers of the last (and current) century, neither was he creating difficult music just because he could. Instead, there is no similar choral repertoire by any other composer that more satisfyingly rewards the effort it takes–including a commitment of a certain level of vocal/technical skill and artistic savvy–to perform it accurately and stylishly–the rewards to the singer realized in the sheer sensual pleasure and excitement of being “inside” Poulenc’s incredible sound-world; and for the listener, you could say the same, just that the perspective is different.
There is no choir, nor will you find a recording, that does such full justice to these great a cappella works, each chanson, motet, or Mass movement a miniature yet significant and unique masterpiece. It’s difficult to choose specific performance highlights–there are so many moments perfectly demonstrative of some or other virtuosic technical feat or lovely, breathtaking, or otherwise moving expressive musical effect, that the list would amount to citations of nearly every part of every piece. However, for sheer virtuosity, you won’t be disappointed if you begin with the Mass–the Sanctus and Benedictus are perfect examples of how these singers manage ensemble balances even in the widest-spaced textures or thorniest harmonic passages.
Although these characteristics are consistent throughout all the performances, in Tenebrae factae sunt and Tristis est anima mea (from the Quatre motets pour le temps de pénitence) we experience the choir’s extraordinary command of ensemble balance, dynamic control, nuances of phrasing, rhythmic precision, spot-on intonation, ideal resonance in harmonies–everything combines to create the resplendent choral sound that defines these works.
Where there is word-painting–and there are numerous instances–we “get it”; where all-important soft singing is required, the choir delivers while always maintaining intonation and ensemble balance; where the texts are in French (the Sept Chansons), we hear beautifully enunciated, expertly sung French; the bell-like sounds at the end of Par une nuit nouvelle are exquisitely executed, as are the vibrant jazz harmonies of Tous les droits, the scurrying opening lines of Marie, and those treacherous wide-open voicings at the beginning and end of Luire (sung perfectly tuned, producing a hair-raising resonance). Not to take anything away from the rest of the choir, it’s important to give special mention to those sublime sopranos, who have so many passages and individual notes that are high and very exposed, and who sing them with extraordinary confidence, clarity, and accuracy, while always mindful of the lower voices.
Most popular among Poulenc’s choral works are surely the Christmas motets, especially the oft recorded O magnum–and here the Elora singers deliver it with a completely natural, easy flow from phrase to phrase; repeated statements (iacentem) are given emphasis without dynamic exaggeration; overall, there is a gentleness of expression coupled with an exceptional sense of devotion to the music. And devotion to the music is the key to the success of this entire program, whether conveying the joy, the sadness, or more reflective, prayerful moods and moments. Noel Edison and his singers have made perhaps their finest recording to date, a reference for choirs who follow and for listeners who want an important and enduring addition to their choral music library.
The production and sound, overseen by Bonnie Silver and Norbert Kraft in the choir’s home venue–St John’s Church, Elora, Ontario–capitalizes on the church’s excellent choral acoustics (which somehow, in different ways, are excellent no matter whether the church is empty or full of people). Thoughtful, informative notes by Dominic Wells cap this essential release.
Prague Philharmonia Wind Quintet plays charming music for wind instruments and piano - for this time they play together with one of the most renowned Czech classical pianists - Ivan Klánský. The repertory of recording is very colorful and inspiring. To put Mozart, Martinu and Poulenc side by side seems entirely natural in programme design terms. Both Martinu (1890-1959) and Poulenc (1899-1963) had found in Mozart one of the main founts for their own neoclassical music. The recording is opened by Mozart's Piano Quintet in E flat major for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and piano. Sextet FP 100 by Francis Poulenc for wind quintet and piano is imbued with a typical Parisian nonchalance, French colouring and with Poulenc's mischievousness balanced out with his firm faith. Bohuslav Martinu's Sextet seems to be more like a suite (5 parts composition), but the music of each of the movements is very original and enjoyable. Prague Philharmonia Wind Quintet with Ivan Klánský are presenting us highly professional and truly enjoyable interpretation of all these pieces.
Dirk Altmann is a master of French clarinet. The release of this music seems to point to the artist’s love for the French capital, as each track in this recital-like compilation has a connection to Paris. In his artistic manner, Altmann expresses his love for the city of love. He has even arranged some of these works himself for this combination of instruments. He is joined by a virtuosic ensemble of colleagues, which include pianist Mako Okamoto, violinist Gesa Jenne, bassist Ryutoaro hei, and accordionist Anne-Maria Holscher.
Grammy Award-winner Alex Klein, former principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performs sonatas that signify the oboe’s 20th-century reemergence as a brilliant solo instrument. One of the world’s most famous oboe players, Klein says he waited to acquire a professional lifetime’s worth of experience before putting his stamp on the six sonatas heard here. With pianist Phillip Bush, Klein plays works that he says “define the modern oboe”: Camille Saint-Saëns’ jovial, late-Romantic Sonata for Oboe and Piano, Op. 166; York Bowen’s lushly beautiful Sonata for Oboe and Pianoforte, Op. 85; Henri Dutilleux’s emotionally wide-ranging Sonata for Oboe and Piano; Petr Eben’s youthful, inventive Oboe Sonata, Op.1; Francis Poulenc’s late, philosophical Sonata for Oboe and Piano, FP 185; and Eugène Bozza’s Sonata for Oboe and Piano, an ethereal, rarely heard tour de force. Klein possesses a “tone so unique and beautiful that musicians from around the globe would flock to [Chicago’s] Symphony Center to hear him play” (Chicago Magazine). He won a Grammy Award in 2002 for Best Instrumental Solo Performance (with Orchestra) for his recording of Richard Strauss’s oboe concerto with conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
REVIEW:
Oboe playing simply does not get any better than this. The collaborative support of pianist Phillip Bush could also not be bettered, nor could the recorded sound offered by Cedille. This recital, then, is nothing less than an essential acquisition for any fan of the oboe or superlative wind playing in general.
Francis Poulenc: Melodies Sur Des Poemes De Guillaume Apollinaire
MDG
CD
$23.99Oct 01, 2010
POULENC Melodies on Poems of Guillaume Apollinaire: Dans le jardin d’Anna; Allons plus vite; La Grenoullière; Montparnasse; Hyde Park; Anguille; Carte-Postale; Avant le Cinéma; 1904; Rosemonde; Le Présent; Chanson; Hier. Banalités. Bleuet. Le Bestiaire. Cortège d’Orphée. Calligrammes • Holger Falk (bar); Alessandro Zuppardo (pn) • MDG 6031658 (58:51 Text and Translation)
What an utterly delightful CD this is! From start to finish light, bright, engaging, and completely immersed in Poulenc’s unusual sound world. Holger Falk, a name unknown to me, is an extraordinarily light, high baritone, a true bariton-matin, a voice classification virtually nonexistent among German singers—but here he is, with an upper range so free and extensive, both in full voice and voix mixte, that much of the time he sounds like a tenor. It is also a unique voice; though it has a definite German lyric-baritone sound, there is no one else he reminds me of. The voice has a velvet sheen that is wholly unique. And what an artist he is, much more subtle in a lyrical sort of way than declamatory as so many of his brethren tend to be. I found his interpretations of the famed Le Bestiaire a trifle more restrained than Thomas Allen’s outstanding recording of them (CRD 3437, the orchestrated version with the Nash Ensemble), yet comparing Falk to Allen—as well as to Pierre Bernac, in the original 1945 recording with Poulenc on piano—reveals not only that he is able to hold his own as an interpreter, but that his voice sounds much more tenorish than either of those esteemed singers. Falk’s extensive high range sounds like an arched extension of his lower tones, rather than an add-on as in the case of Bernac, whose voice—after not having heard it in some years—suddenly strikes me as somewhat Russian in quality, particularly the low range.
In addition to being an outstanding song interpreter, then, Falk has a voice I could listen to all day without fatigue. His range, arched phrasing, sensitive dynamic shading, and ability to color his tones all mark him as an artist of outstanding sensibility. I should also point out that Alessandro Zuppardo, though in a supporting role, is equally sensitive and highly musical, capable of give-and-take with his singer to a degree rare among duos who are not permanent concert partners, but since he has had extensive experience accompanying singers (among them Renato Bruson, Mariella Devia, Fabio Armiliato, Cecilia Bartoli, and Vincenzo La Scola) this comes as less of a surprise. This is a disc you’ll play over and over and over again, if you enjoy Poulenc’s songs or modern French song in general. MDG’s outstanding sound quality—rich, round, with just the right amount of natural reverberance—lends an extra patina of quality to this release. Bravo, Falk and Zuppardo! I hope to hear much more of you in the years to come.
