Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc was the leading composer of Les Six, the French group devoted to turning music away from Impressionism, formality, and intellectualism. He wrote in a direct and tuneful manner, often juxtaposing the witty and ironic with the sentimental or melancholy. He heavily favored diatonic and modal textures over chromatic writing. His music also shows many elements of pandiatonicism, introduced around 1920 by Stravinsky, whose influence can be heard in some of Poulenc's compositions, such as the religious choral work Gloria. Poulenc is regarded as one of the most important 20th century composers of religious music, and in the realm of the French art song, he is also a major voice of his time. Poulenc was also a pianist of considerable ability.
Poulenc was born in Paris on January 7, 1899, into a wealthy family of pharmaceutical magnates. The agrochemical giant Rhone-Poulenc is the present-day corporation started by his forebears. His mother was a talented amateur pianist who began giving him piano lessons at age five. Later, Poulenc studied with a niece of César Franck and then with the eminent Spanish virtuoso Ricardo Viñes, for whom he would later write music. At age eighteen, Poulenc wrote Rapsodie Nègre for baritone and chamber ensemble, which made him an overnight sensation in France. The young composer served in the military during the years 1918 to 1921, during which time he composed the popular Trois Mouvements Perpétuels (1918).
By 1920, Les Six -- Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Germaine Tailleferre (the sextet's lone female representative), Louis Durey, and Francis Poulenc -- had begun making its impression on the music world. In 1923, Poulenc wrote the ballet Les Biches, which Diaghilev staged the following year with great success, the public finding its mixture of lightness, gaiety, and occasional moments of sentimentality irresistible. Poulenc continued writing at a fairly prolific pace in the late '20s and early '30s, producing many piano compositions, songs, and other works. In 1935, he rekindled his friendship with baritone Pierre Bernac, thus launching a productive and enduring professional relationship. He also returned to the Roman Catholic Church that year when close friend Pierre-Octave Ferroud was killed in an automobile accident. Thereafter, he wrote many important works of a religious nature, the first of which were Litanies à la Vierge Noire, for soloists, chorus, and organ, and Mass in G for mixed a cappella chorus, both from 1936.
During World War II, Poulenc remained in German-occupied France, writing music of an antiwar or defiantly anti-Nazi bent, sometimes writing songs on texts by banned authors, such as Lorca. He also wrote a ballet, Les Animaux Modèles (1940-1941), Sonata for violin and piano (1942-1943; rev. 1949) dedicated to Lorca, and the masterful Figure Humaine (1943), a choral cantata which is a hymn to freedom. In the postwar years, Poulenc turned out his Sinfonietta (1947) and Piano Concerto (1949), both not entirely successful. In the period from 1953 to 1956, Poulenc produced his most ambitious work, the opera Dialogue des Carmelites, considered by many the greatest French opera of the 20th century.
Poulenc finished his last opera in 1958, La Voix Humaine, a work whose lone character talks (sings) on the phone to her deserting lover for the work's 45-minute length. Notable also in this period is his Gloria (1959), a work shorn of sanctimony and rich in communicative simplicity and fervent religiosity. Poulenc's last major work was his Sonata for Oboe and Piano in 1962, dedicated to the memory of Prokofiev, whom he had befriended in the 1920s. Poulenc died suddenly of a heart attack on January 30, 1963.
© Robert Cummings /TiVo
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Poulenc, Fauré, Komitas
Astrig Siranossian, Théo Fouchenneret
Música de cámara - Editado por Claves Records el 07-04-2016
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
L'histoire de Babar
Jean de Brunhoff, Francis Poulenc
Children - Editado por Editions Eveil et Découvertes el 01-01-2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart & Poulenc: Works For Violin & Piano
Música de cámara - Editado por Claves Records el 20-01-2017
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Erik Satie (Enregistrements 1937 à 1959)
Francis Poulenc / Suzanne Danco / Igor Markevitch
Clásica - Editado por Les Indispensables de Diapason el 29-08-2014
Discoteca Ideal Qobuz16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Francis Poulenc : Concerto champêtre - Concerto pour orgue - Aubade - Les Biches...
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 03-07-2009
Discoteca Ideal Qobuz16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc joue la musique des autres (Enregistrements historiques 1928 à 1962)
Clásica - Editado por Pêcheurs de perles el 17-04-2020
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Salon (Presque Sans Violon)
Música de cámara - Editado por Gutman Records el 30-08-2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Meet the Composer - Francis Poulenc Playing His Own Works
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 01-04-2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La Voce del Pianoforte
Clásica - Editado por Twilight Music el 03-02-2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Remembering Poulenc with Orchestre de Paris
Francis Poulenc, Orchestre de Paris
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 21-06-2022
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Boston Symphony Orchestra: Poulenc & Prokofiev
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Francis Poulenc, Sergei Prokofiev
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 07-01-2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc: Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet, Op. 100 - Riegger: Concerto for Piano and Woodwind Quintet, Op. 53
Clásica - Editado por Everest Records el 07-03-1961
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Voyage A Paris: Songs of Francis Poulenc
Clásica - Editado por Arabesque Recordings el 25-08-1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cocardes, FP 16b: II. Bonne d’Enfant
John Andrews, Manchester Camerata
Clásica - Editado por Resonus Classics el 12-04-2024
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Soirée Française
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 01-04-2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kyrie
Andrew Nethsingha, The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge
Clásica - Editado por Signum Records el 01-09-2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rediscovering French Operas in 21 Volumes - Vol. 14/21 : Le Dialogue des Carmélites
Ópera - Editado por ISIS el 05-01-2017
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Erik Satie - Francis Poulenc Plays the Piano Music of Satie and Poulenc
Pop - Editado por EL records el 01-01-1950
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An Impression of France
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 23-03-2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Les Mamelles de Tiresias (1953 cast recording)
Clásica - Editado por LTM Recordings el 01-01-1953
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Satie & Poulenc: Works
Clásica - Editado por Iris music el 06-12-2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo