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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Sextet, FP100: III. Finale
Clásica - Editado por Resonus Classics el 23 abr. 2021
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Lumières sur Francis Poulenc, Vol. 2
Pop - Editado por Weishaupt Music & Entertainment el 15 jul. 2017
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Works for Two Pianos
Pierre van der Westhuizen, Sophie Grobler, Westhuizen Duo
Clásica - Editado por AMP Recordings el 27 abr. 2010
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Dalasinfoniettan & Daniel Blendulf
Dalasinfoniettan, Francis Poulenc, Mats Larsson Gothe, György Ligeti, Daniel Blendulf
Música sinfónica - Editado por Swedish Society el 23 ago. 2019
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Le Bal masqué, FP60: III. Malvina
Roderick Williams, Mark Bebbington
Clásica - Editado por Resonus Classics el 9 abr. 2021
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Poulenc: Il ème Intermezzo en ré Bémol Majeur
Francis Poulenc, Pontus Carron
Clásica - Editado por EUROPEAN GRAMOPHONE el 11 abr. 2023
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Aubade
Gabriel Fauré, Francis Poulenc, Vasteras Sinfonietta, Howard Shelley
Clásica - Editado por dB Productions el 16 sep. 2016
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Francis Poulenc: Sextet for Piano and Winds, Three Songs, Sonata for Two Pianos
Francis Poulenc, Jennie Tourel, Leonard Bernstein
Clásica - Editado por Soundmark el 30 jun. 2011
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Francis Poulenc ou L'Invité de Touraine (1899-1963)
Francis Poulenc, Claude Rostand
Educational - Editado por Grandes Heures Radio France - Ina el 15 nov. 1995
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Rediscovering French Operas in 21 Volumes - Vol. 16/21 : Les Mamelles de Tirésias
Ópera - Editado por ISIS el 5 ene. 2017
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Children's World
Clásica - Editado por Albany Records el 1 sep. 2016
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Voyage: Debussy, Liszt, Manen, Piazzolla, Poulenc, Scriabin, Thalberg
Clásica - Editado por Arabesque Recordings el 3 mar. 2009
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Recital in the West
Clásica - Editado por Soundset el 10 mar. 2010
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Poulenc: Chansons Gaillardes, Song Cycle for Voice and Piano, Fp 42 (Digitally Remastered)
Clásica - Editado por EMG Classical el 28 oct. 2014
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Piano Masterpieces - Poulenc, Tchaikovsky
Hamburg Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
Clásica - Editado por Piros Comercial Digital el 23 abr. 2015
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Poulenc: "Les Biches" Suite For Orchestra
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Junichi Hirokami
Clásica - Editado por RLPO Live el 1 ene. 2000
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Lumières sur Francis Poulenc, Vol. 1
Pop - Editado por Weishaupt Music & Entertainment el 24 jun. 2017
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Rediscovering French Operas in 21 Volumes - Vol. 15/21 : Le Bal Masqué - La Voix Humaine - Le Bel Indifférent
Ópera - Editado por ISIS el 5 ene. 2017
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