SOMM Recordings highlights the pianistic mastery of Francis Poulenc (1899�- 1963) with a release of extraordinary historic recordings including two of his four major concertante works and selected solo piano pieces. To mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Erik Satie (1866�- 1925), this recording also features Poulenc performing piano gems by Satie, whose distaste for academic routine and Romanticism had a profound influence on Poulenc and the other members of the ad hoc music group, Les Six. These performances, ranging from 1930 to 1950, have been brilliantly remastered by long-time SOMM collaborator, Lani Spahr, about whose work Gramophone has said, "There are historic releases that make the grade because they are just that - 'historic' - and there are releases that make history because they are musically overwhelming." This release opens with Poulenc's Concerto in D minor for two pianos and orchestra, commissioned by American-born heiress Princess Edmond de Polignac specifically to be premiered by the composer and his friend, Jacques Fevrier, at the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Venice in 1932. The vibrant colouration inherent in the piece was inspired by Balinese musicians whom Poulenc had heard at the Paris Colonial Exhibition of 1931. The performance heard here with Georges Pretre conducting the Orchestre National de France was recorded the year before Poulenc's sudden death, and again pairs Poulenc and Fevrier, thirty years after they created the world premiere. While on tour in New York during the winter of 1949 /1950, Poulenc recorded selections of his piano music along with twelve of his favourite compositions by Erik Satie. Poulenc's own music ranges from his earliest works, Trois mouvements perpetuelles, to the C major Nocturne from a set of eight, and the neo-classical Suite francaise of 1935-a homage to his 16th century compatriot, Claude Gervaise. Erik Satie was not as gifted a pianist as Poulenc, and his technical limitations largely confined his output to the shorter forms, particularly for piano, where his singular creative genius shone at it's brightest. Amongst some of Satie's deliberately absurd titles-like "Tyrolean Turk" and "Skinny Dance"-Poulenc also chose to record one each of Satie's exquisitely crafted Gymnopedie and Gnossienne. Aubade (Morning Song), a 1929 concerto for piano and chamber orchestra of eighteen instruments, is the final work on this release. It exists as both a Concerto choreographique, based on the Roman myth of the virgin huntress Diana, and also a concert version, as heard here. The positive response to Aubade led to a commercial recording with the Orchestre Straram conducted by Walther Straram, the 78rpm discs capturing Poulenc's only recording of this work.

The new Kreuzkantor Martin Lehmann and his Dresdner Kreuzchor present their new recording of Francis Poulenc's "Gloria" for soprano, mixed choir and orchestra (FP 177). Combining it with the liturgically corresponding "Mass" for soloists, choir and orchestra in A flat major (D 678) by Franz Schubert. They performed the two works in the acoustically magnificent Kulturpalast Dresden with a first-class cast of soloist Elsa Benoit, Irike Malotta, Patrick Grahl and Klaus Hager. This album is continuing the Dresden Philarmonic Orchestra and Kreuzchor's long history of recordings and artistic collaboration on Berlin Classics.

Written between 1887 and 1890, Gabriel Faur�'s Requiem is among the best-loved pieces in the choral repertory. Traditionally, Requiems are serious, prayerful laments for the dead. Faur�'s was altogether different. In place of the usual somber mood, his is noted for it's calm, serene and peaceful outlook. The composer revised and expanded the work several times, but it is the original version that is performed here using period instruments and performance practices. This sublimne recording, featuring Ensemble Aedes and Les Si�cles led by Mathieu Romano, also includes Poulenc's Figure Humaine and Debussy's Trois Chansons

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]

POULENC: COMPLETE CHAMBER MUSI

Without doubt, this French domestic release is the finest single disc of Poulenc concertos available, better even than the composer's recordings, and that's saying a lot. They have everything: style, spirit, a vivid sense of fun, a touch of sentiment that never turns maudlin, and that ability to change moods every few bars that Poulenc always requires. In the Concerto for Two Pianos Eric Le Sage and Frank Braley have a field day tossing phrases back and forth, or hauntingly recreating those gamelan sounds that infiltrate the work at critical moments (particularly at the end of the first movement). From the delicious, faux-Mozartian central Larghetto to the jazzy finale, the players relish every nuance. It's a blast.


Here, as in the other two works, conductor Stéphane Denève perfectly captures the wry, "sec" quality of Poulenc's orchestral writing with vivacious rhythmic underpinning and crystal clear textures. La Sage's interpretation of the Piano Concerto simply wipes the floor with the competition. He's one of the few artists who knows how to savor the music's salon ambience without wallowing, and the tempos he and Denève choose are ideal. Aubade, an odd ballet/concerto that has been frequently recorded, seldom satisfactorily, for once enjoys an accompaniment as characterful and involving as the piano part, with terrific contributions from the solo winds. The final couple of minutes are simply magical. Beautifully clean, well-balanced sonics round out this enticing picture. Let's hope RCA makes this release available internationally. It's unbeatable. [5/12/2005]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

After a successful cycle of Chopin works for solo piano, exclusive Chandos artist Louis Lortie plays here works by Poulenc with his duet partner Hélène Mercier. In Aubade and the two concertos they are joined by Edward Gardner and the BBC Philharmonic.

The French-Canadian pianists draw a persuasive portrait of the melancholic Parisian that Poulenc was: playful and depressed, like his tutor, Erik Satie. There is always a sense of palpable anxiety in these pieces, be it the sarcastic joie de vivre of the 'choreographic concerto' Aubade or the ironic melancholy of the explosive Concerto for Two Pianos – Mozartean and Stravinskyan at the same time. Further examples are the contrasting pair of works for two pianos, in which the evocation of the sound of accordion and smell of fried potatoes in L'Embarquement pour Cythère complement the Élégie which, as Poulenc indicated, should be played with 'a cigar in your mouth and a glass of cognac on the piano'.

Similarly, the dazzling and dissonant Sonata for Piano Duet alternates between passages of charme and others that are féroce and strident. 'Inventing his own folk tunes', as Ravel noted, Poulenc took a decisive step in his musical emancipation with this very 'dissident' work.

Louis Lortie also plays the Piano Concerto, in which the traditional concerto virtues are more obvious: memorable tunes, sparkling orchestration, and a wide range of textures in the piano part.

Review:

The distinct attraction of this performance by Lortie with the BBC Philharmonic under Edward Gardner is the way in which orchestral color, as well as piano texture, is so clearly defined and zestfully articulated. Lortie is joined by Helene Mercier for cracking performances of the Two-Piano Concerto and the Sonata for four hands, their distinctive acerbities given whiplash emphasis by both pianists, yet with their more lyrical leanings tenderly voiced.

– Gramophone

POULENC: COMPLETE MUSIC FOR SO

Stravinsky, Poulenc, Satie & Septets: 3x7

Classical Music

On the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the composer’s birth, six internationally acclaimed soloists are now presenting chamber music by Francis Poulenc, and what these young musicians, all of them active in Switzerland, charm onto the stage, grips us from the very first measure.

The incomparable combination of breathtaking virtuosity and playful lightness as well as songlike melos and deep emotion long ago qualified this anti-Romantic rebel of the 1920s as a modern classic. Already the opening Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet emancipates itself from the chains of convention. Not a one of the movements designed in classical form adheres to a fixed metrical pattern. Shifts of meter and tempo again and again relax the structure. The resultant extremely entertaining impression pervades the entire program, from the early Trio for Piano, Oboe, and Bassoon to the later Duo Sonatas. Poulenc’s preference for wind instruments may perhaps be explained by his French origins and his predilection for song – since it is not without reason that he ranks as one of the most important song composers of the twentieth century. Even without texts his chamber music is highly expressive and dynamic.

This brand-new Super Audio album offers high-resolution sound and three-dimensional imaging, transports audiences deep into the music, and makes us forget the highest degree of technical difficulty involved in the scores. A disc for mirthful entertainment on the very highest level!

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REVIEW:

The Ensemble Confoederatio players evidently have fun in the Sextet. Bassoonist Axel Benoit phrases nicely in the first-movement bridge which heralds the slow section. There isn’t quite the sense of Gallic humour summoned up by Rogé and friends, but it’s a close call. Portuguese flautist Rute Fernandes plays her sonata suavely, especially the jocular finale. Maria Sournatcheva captures the tragic introspection of the Oboe Sonata well. Sérgio Pires delivers a rollicking Clarinet Sonata, fuller and rounder in tone than Michel Portal's. Overall, individual performances stand up well and this disc should provide a lot of pleasurable listening.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Poulenc wrote his "Stabat Mater," a hauntingly passionate work, after visiting the sacred shrine of the Black Madonna of Rocamadour. He made a pilgrimage to her remote chapel in the south of France after a good friend of his was hilled in a car accident.