This program brings together première recordings of Francis Poulenc’s own piano versions of his ‘ballet of atmosphere’ Les Biches and ‘choreographic concerto’ Aubade, as well as the first digital recording of the suite from Les Animaux modèles, inspired by the fables of La Fontaine and compiled by Grant Johannesen with the composer’s agreement. ‘Piano scores’ are an essential part of rehearsing and choreographing any ballet, but the piano was also indispensable to Poulenc’s compositional process. He owed his love of classical dance to years of working closely with Dyaghilev, and his music brims with subtlety, humor, genuine emotion, piquant harmonies and rhythmic lightness.

Saint-Saens, C.: Symphony No. 3, "Organ" / Poulenc, F.: Orga

Vocal Recital: Dawson, Lynne - Poulenc, F. / Hahn, R. / Chau

Poulenc the miniaturist par excellence burst into public view, fully-formed in his late teens, emerging flamboyantly into the artistic swirl of 1920s Paris. His fabulously inventive, quirky and colourful approach to writing for chamber ensemble and voice comes vividly to life in this set of early works which capture all of his youthful elegance, wit, and occasionally sardonic humour. Many of these early masterpieces are now well-known in their incarnations for piano; but his sheer inventiveness and joyful revelry in a kaleidoscopic riot of instrumental colour is celebrated here in the earliest versions of such classics as Le Bestiaire and Cocardes, alongside masterpieces more cruelly treated by his contemporaries, the Quatre Poemes de Max Jacob and Le Gendarme Incompris.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Francis Poulenc is perhaps the composer whose works come the closest to embodying the French esprit, a multivalent term referring to a special blend of brilliance, sensuousness, aestheticism, and above all Frenchness. This is music that is mirthful as well as serious, entertaining and demanding, and superficial as well as profound. It was thus that Francis Poulenc composed, he who called himself »Poulenc-Janus« in an allusion to the Roman god who had two faces and could simultaneously look this way and that. Poulenc’s music is often stamped by this ambiguity, and his chamber music for winds is the ideal repertoire for the cpo debut of an aspiring young ensemble from Denmark: the Ensemble MidtVest. This ensemble is formed by eleven musicians, enthusiasts as well as individualists, who are graduates of leading European and American musical institutions of higher learning, and some of them have repeatedly been honored with prizes. The ensemble was founded in 2002 and has earned a fine reputation for its creative programs, high artistic level, and constant questioning of the conventional concert form. Its core formation for string quartet, wind quintet, and piano promotes flexibility, variation, and rich color in the combination of instruments. The Ensemble MidtVest performs as a duo as well as a sonorous nonet. It is one of the five »basis ensembles« in Denmark.

- CPO

This new album presents a delightful selection of Poulenc’s piano music, starting with the intriguing little Valse (1919) from L’Album des Six, which first presented in published form the collective of Franco-Swiss composers who came to be known under that title. As the fruit of a trip to Italy in the company of Darius Milhaud, a fellow Les Six-er, Napoli is a suite written in 1925 and presenting Italian forms through the light of Poulenc’s irrepressible personality.
More affecting are the eight Nocturnes, composed between 1929 and 1938, and the three Novelettes (1927-1959), while the ’Six petites pièces enfantines’ that make up the Villageoises of 1933 share the a spirit of gentle playfulness with Poulenc’s popular musical tale, Babar the Elephant. One day when Poulenc was improvising on the piano, his cousin’s little girl exclaimed: “Grandfather, it’s so boring when you play like that, why don’t you play us this?”. And in 1945, once the dreadful war years were over, Poulenc was happy to oblige.
The Trois Mouvements perpetuels are early pieces, a product of the kaleidoscopic ‘harlequin years’ of Paris in the 1920s. The three movements reveal a musical freshness and fluidity somewhat reminiscent of Satie, whose individualistic approach to life and art inspired the members of Les Six, to whom he served as a kind of honorary president. Finally, Poulenc evokes the spirit of Bach returns in a surprising guise in the Valse-Improvisation sur le nom de Bach, a piece bursting with vitality, in perfect keeping with the famous pianist Vladimir Horowitz, to whom it was dedicated.
Two previous albums by Chiara Cipelli on Brilliant Classics and Piano Classics have won enthusiastic praise from reviewers in Fanfare magazine. The piano music of Bruno Bettinelli is ‘presented with wonderful vigour and colour by the fine young Lombardy native Chiara Cipelli’ (95801), while ‘Cipelli’s technical capabilities are impressive throughout’ her selection of early Messiaen pieces (PCL10200).

Works by three of the greatest French composers of the late 19th and 20th Centuries.

Doyen of Danish Pianists Professor John Damgaard – As a young student I had the pleasure to play Francis Poulenc’s Sextet for Nadia Boulanger. Feeling uneasy with some of the more or less banal themes I asked for her help. She said that Poulenc had a strong sense of humor, but always expressed it in an extremely serious way – which made it even more humorous. And you had to treat his music in the same manner. Always serious. Poulenc’s musical life was at a time, where the tonal system more or less had outlived itself. The 12-tone music had taken over. At least in the Germanic musical world. But Poulenc detested this form of intellectual way of making music. Music had to be conceived through the ear.

In 1943, when he wrote his Intermezzo in A-?at major, he ended the piece with 12 chords in all the keys...probably an ironic greeting to the Germans in Paris! Already in 1928, he showed - in one of his most beautiful pieces - the Pastorale - that it is possible through the ear to make beautiful chords containing almost all the 12 different notes at the same time. Beautiful sonority has always been a major key to French Music. Many years later Pierre Boulez said “I wish I could compose in major/minor keys. But I can’t!” Another of his beautiful pieces the Mélancolie is written in August 1940 – 3 months after the Germans went into Paris. Leonard Bernstein suggested in one of his Harvard Lectures that the interval of a downward third is an archetype. In all cultures that means “mother”! Mélancolie ends with a downward third 3 times – a definite cry for help. With these elements in consideration, it is totally wrong to judge Poulenc a light weight French composer – which has often been the case. He is much more an original, serious French composer with a lot of humor.

Véronique Gens’s version of La Voix humaine has been eagerly awaited! This ‘lyric tragedy in one act’ might have been written for her, so ideally suited are her feeling for language and her dramatic intensity to Poulenc’s monologue on a text by Jean Cocteau, composed in 1958. This is a far cry from the ‘light’ Poulenc of the 1920s. Cocteau paid him the highest compliment: ‘Dear Francis, you have fixed, once and for all, the way to speak my text.’ Véronique Gens confesses that she had always wanted to perform and record this piece; now she has achieved her ambition, in close partnership with the Orchestre National de Lille under its music director Alexandre Bloch. Also featured on the album is the Sinfonietta: this is in fact a genuine symphony, but, as Nicolas Southon writes, ‘there is no denying that the work – commissioned by the BBC in 1947 – has a freshness and a freedom of tone that justify its title’.

REVIEW:

La voix humaine is a monodrama. Gens had long wished to sing and record the piece, and was asked to perform it many times. She waited till she was ready for such a demanding piece, a work she must carry for forty minutes of, at times, very intense solo singing. Poulenc’s favourite soprano Denise Duval performed it first. She almost co-composed the piece.

It is clear that Madame Gens has really thought through the work and what it requires. Her decision to wait to be certain before she was ready to tackle this piece would seem to have paid off handsomely. This is an outstanding interpretation, the right artist recording the right work at the right time. That top C is nailed alright, and at the few other moments of “real singing” her familiar sound and line are as eloquent as usual. But the rest, the ‘heightened talking’, is equally persuasive, realistic and moving. Of course, that realism is also distressing, as we eavesdrop on deep personal anguish. At one point, Elle confesses to a suicide attempt. Some listeners will surely find the work rather harrowing, not one for everyday listening. But if one of the duties of art is to portray life in all its grimness as well as all its glory, then La voix humaine should be heard.

-- MusicWeb International

When we recorded this album, in March 2022, no-one could have imagined that it would be Bramwell Tovey’s last recording. Chandos Records would like to dedicate this recording to the memory of Bramwell Tovey, with whom the company had collaborated for over a decade; a versatile musician highly accomplished as both a composer and a conductor, immensely personable and humorous, who possessed an innate understanding of the qualities of his fellow orchestral musicians and quickly earned their respect and devotion. He shall be very sorely missed. Tovey and the BBC Concert orchestra capture the wit and charm of Poulenc’s music perfectly. Each piece sizzles with excitement, and the well-known pieces (the Sinfonietta and ballet Les Animaux modèles) are beautifully complemented by less frequently heard miniatures: ‘La Baigneuse de Trouville’ and ‘Discours du général’ from Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel and ‘Pastourelle’ from L’Éventail de Jeanne.

REVIEWS:

Les Animaux modèles, in its complete version, is a real rarity… this score is an absolute masterpiece with an enchanting beauty of melodies, a finesse of orchestration and a poetic evocation of animals through an intelligent and subtle narration. In 40 minutes, this music is a marvel. Bramwell Tovey at the podium of a sharp and precise orchestra delivers a thoughtful and finely musical rigorous reading of content and form… The Sinfonietta is the ideal complement. Bramwell Tovey takes care of the lines and contours of this beautiful neo-classical tone score[.]

-- Crescendo

[Tovey] seems to gaze into the soul of the Sinfonietta … a deliciously refined account of Les animaux modèles… Astonishingly vivid Chandos engineering on a 'big-screen' soundstage.”

-- Hi-Fi News

Chandos collaborated with Bramwell Tovey for more than a decade and the music-making has his trademark naturalness and good humour. Not the most obvious farewell, perhaps, but in its avoidance of pomp and solemnity none the worse for that.

-- Gramophone

This is one of the most enchanting discs of Poulenc’s orchestral music that one could wish for. It is also a fitting tribute to the fine musicianship and inimitable style of the conductor Bramwell Tovey…The BBC Concert Orchestra are on sparkling form and respond unfailingly to Tovey’s direction with alert and characterful playing throughout this SACD. In all respects this release is an absolute winner – 74 minutes of captivating music performed with finesse and recorded in state-of-the-art sound. Who could ask for more?

-- HRAudio.net

…here the late Bramwell Tovey has the full measure of these pieces, finding every ounce of their piquancy and weight – and in a recording in which in its forensic detail registers with total faithfulness. Tovey and the BBC Concert Orchestra revel in the charm, wit and humor of some of Poulenc’s finest orchestral pieces…

-- CDChoice.co.uk

An excellent disc of some lesser-known Poulenc, very well performed and splendidly recorded.

-- MusicWeb International

A budget-priced collection of highlights from among the composer's solo piano, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works, including his famous Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani in G minor.

Canadian pianist Lucille Chung is admired for her “stylish and refined performances.” (Gramophone Magazine) She first appears as a soloist on this release with Poulenc’s Improvisations, Novelettes and L’embarquement pour Cythere, before being joined by her duo partner and husband, Alessio Bax. Poulenc was not only an incredible composer, but also a virtuosic pianist. His style is characterized by color and clarity, and he is considered by many to be the finest French song composer since Faure.

-----

REVIEWS:

Chung is a startlingly original pianist whose solo work, apart from discs of Scriabin and Ligeti, we’ve heard too little of … Chung captures the sense of a series of musical snapshots with the evanescent spontaneity of her playing. She is able to evoke the mercurial mood changes so characteristic of Poulenc with grace, consistently beautiful sound and an unerring sense of proportion. In succession, each seems more vivid than the last.

– Gramophone

In the composer’s two-piano reduction of the Concerto for Two Pianos Chung and Bax tackle a sizeable work with aplomb, ferociously attacking the outer movements and achieving a delicious romance in the glorious central one. This is a release to savor.

– Classical Ear