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: Concerto pour deux pianos & Concert champêtre pour clavecin et orchestre (Mono Version)
Francis Poulenc, Jacques Février, Georges Prêtre
Classica - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Figure Humaine
Classica - Pubblicato da Signum Records il 10 mag 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc: Sonate pour flûte et piano & Trio pour piano, hautbois et basson (Mono Version)
Classica - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc, Fauré, Komitas
Astrig Siranossian, Théo Fouchenneret
Musica da camera - Pubblicato da Claves Records il 7 apr 2016
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Francis Poulenc : Secular Choral Music
Classica - Pubblicato da Globe il 1 gen 2000
La discografia ideale di Qobuz16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc: Organ Concerto
Musica concertante - Pubblicato da MSR Classics il 13 nov 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc: Concerto pour deux pianos & Concert champêtre pour clavecin et orchestre (Stereo Version)
Aimée van de Wiele, Francis Poulenc, Pierre Dervaux
Generi vari - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
L'histoire de Babar
Jean de Brunhoff, Francis Poulenc
Children - Pubblicato da Editions Eveil et Découvertes il 1 gen 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc & Ravel: Mélodies (Mono Version)
Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc
Generi vari - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1952
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart & Poulenc: Works For Violin & Piano
Musica da camera - Pubblicato da Claves Records il 20 gen 2017
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Erik Satie (Enregistrements 1937 à 1959)
Francis Poulenc / Suzanne Danco / Igor Markevitch
Classica - Pubblicato da Les Indispensables de Diapason il 29 ago 2014
La discografia ideale di Qobuz16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Francis Poulenc : Concerto champêtre - Concerto pour orgue - Aubade - Les Biches...
Classica - Pubblicato da Warner Classics il 3 lug 2009
La discografia ideale di Qobuz16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc: Works for Piano Solo and Duo
Classica - Pubblicato da Signum Records il 6 mag 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Songs of Poulenc, Vol.3
Classica - Pubblicato da Signum Records il 24 ott 2011
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Satie: 3 Morceaux en forme de poire (Mono Version)
Francis Poulenc, Jacques Février
Generi vari - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc joue la musique des autres (Enregistrements historiques 1928 à 1962)
Classica - Pubblicato da Pêcheurs de perles il 17 apr 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Songs of Poulenc, Vol.4
Musica vocale (sacra e profana) - Pubblicato da Signum Records il 2 set 2013
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Salon (Presque Sans Violon)
Musica da camera - Pubblicato da Gutman Records il 30 ago 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc: Concert champêtre pour clavecin et orchestre & Concerto pour deux pianos (Mono Version)
Francis Poulenc, Aimée van de Wiele, Pierre Dervaux
Generi vari - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Francis Poulenc - Trio for Oboe, Bassoon & Piano Op. 43 / Trio für Oboe, Fagott & Klavier Opus 43 / Trio pour basson, hautbois et piano
Classica - Pubblicato da K&K Verlagsanstalt il 10 gen 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc: Aubade & Sinfonietta (Mono Version)
Francis Poulenc, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, Georges Prêtre
Generi vari - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo