January 6, 2014.Francis Poulenc.The first several days of the year are rich in composers’ birthdays: three Russians (Mily Balakirev, Nikolai Medtner, and Alexander Scriabin), two Italians (Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Giuseppe Sammartini, not to be confused with the more famous brother, Giovanni).Josef Suk, the Czech composer, the favorite pupil and son in law of Antonin Dvořák, was also born during the first week of the year, aswas the German composer, Max Bruch.A veritable constellation of smaller stars.
Francis Poulenc was also born in the first week of the year, on January 7, 1899 in Paris.He was brought up comfortably: his father Emil was a director of Poulenc Frères, a pharmaceutical company, which later became the much larger Rhône-Poulenc.When he was 15, Francis started piano lessons with Ricardo Viñes, a friend of Maurice Ravel’s (Viñes premiered many of Ravel’s piano compositions; he also championed the music of Claude Debussy, de Falla and Albéniz).A year later Poulenc was introduced to a group of avant-garde surrealist poets – Max Jacob (the oldest of them and Picasso’s best friend), Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Éluard and Louis Aragon (some years later Éluard and Aragon would break up with the surrealists and join the French Communist Party).Poulenc started composing seriously around 1917 and in the next three years wrote a number of sonatas (for two clarinets, for piano four hands, for the violin) and songs, some on poems of Apollinaire. In 1920 he got involved with a group of young composers, all of them living on Montparnasse.The music critic Henry Collet called them Les Six.Jean Cocteau was to an extent the organizer, and Eric Satie was the musical leader.In addition to Poulenc, the group included Georges Auric, Louis Durey (probably the least interesting of them all), Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, and Germaine Tailleferre, the only woman in the company.These particular musicians, while all good friends, were never formally organized, but the name stuck.
Probably the most significant piece Poulenc wrote in the period before the Second World War was his Concerto for Two Pianos.He premiered it, together with his friend the pianist Jacques Février, in 1932.Being openly gay, (in 1928 he dedicated his Concert champêtre for harpsichord and orchestra to a lover, the painter Richard Chanlaire), Poulenc proposed a marriage of convenience to a childhood friend, Raymonde Linossier.She refused but they remained good friends.In 1930 Linossier died and Poulenc fell into a depression.Six years later, in 1936 Pierre-Octave Ferroud, a composer and an acquaintance, also died, in a horrible road accident.His death deeply affected Poulenc.He went to the shrine of the Black Virgin in Rocamadour (the statue, made of black wood, is one of the most revered religious objects in France).There he had an epiphany of sorts, which affected him personally, and also influenced his compositional style.He started writing liturgical and religious pieces, something he had never done before: Litanies à la vierge noire were composed right after the visit in 1936; then, a year later, a Mass; later, in 1941, Exultate Deo, then Stabat Mater in1950 and many more.
Poulenc was active during the War, writing many songs and some incidental music.He also wrote a ballet, Les animaux modèles, staged by Serge Lifar at the Paris Opera.After the war he wrote two very important operas, Dialogues des carmélites in1956 and La voix humaine based on a play by Jean Cocteau, for a single voice, two years later.Poulenc died on January 30th of 1963.
Here’s his earlier piece, the already-mentioned Concerto for Two Pianos.It’s a 1962 recording, with Francis Poulenc and his friend, Jacques Février, the same pianists who had performed the Concerto during the premier 30 years earlier.Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (it became Orchestre de Paris in 1967) is conducted by Pierre Dervaux.
Francis Poulenc 2013
January 6, 2014. Francis Poulenc. The first several days of the year are rich in composers’ birthdays: three Russians (Mily Balakirev, Nikolai Medtner, and Alexander Scriabin), two Italians (Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Giuseppe Sammartini, not to be confused with the more famous brother, Giovanni). Josef Suk, the Czech composer, the favorite pupil and son in law of Antonin Dvořák, was also born during the first week of the year,
aswas the German composer, Max Bruch. A veritable constellation of smaller stars.
Francis Poulenc was also born in the first week of the year, on January 7, 1899 in Paris. He was brought up comfortably: his father Emil was a director of Poulenc Frères, a pharmaceutical company, which later became the much larger Rhône-Poulenc. When he was 15, Francis started piano lessons with Ricardo Viñes, a friend of Maurice Ravel’s (Viñes premiered many of Ravel’s piano compositions; he also championed the music of Claude Debussy, de Falla and Albéniz). A year later Poulenc was introduced to a group of avant-garde surrealist poets – Max Jacob (the oldest of them and Picasso’s best friend), Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Éluard and Louis Aragon (some years later Éluard and Aragon would break up with the surrealists and join the French Communist Party). Poulenc started composing seriously around 1917 and in the next three years wrote a number of sonatas (for two clarinets, for piano four hands, for the violin) and songs, some on poems of Apollinaire. In 1920 he got involved with a group of young composers, all of them living on Montparnasse. The music critic Henry Collet called them Les Six. Jean Cocteau was to an extent the organizer, and Eric Satie was the musical leader. In addition to Poulenc, the group included Georges Auric, Louis Durey (probably the least interesting of them all), Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, and Germaine Tailleferre, the only woman in the company. These particular musicians, while all good friends, were never formally organized, but the name stuck.
Probably the most significant piece Poulenc wrote in the period before the Second World War was his Concerto for Two Pianos. He premiered it, together with his friend the pianist Jacques Février, in 1932. Being openly gay, (in 1928 he dedicated his Concert champêtre for harpsichord and orchestra to a lover, the painter Richard Chanlaire), Poulenc proposed a marriage of convenience to a childhood friend, Raymonde Linossier. She refused but they remained good friends. In 1930 Linossier died and Poulenc fell into a depression. Six years later, in 1936 Pierre-Octave Ferroud, a composer and an acquaintance, also died, in a horrible road accident. His death deeply affected Poulenc. He went to the shrine of the Black Virgin in Rocamadour (the statue, made of black wood, is one of the most revered religious objects in France). There he had an epiphany of sorts, which affected him personally, and also influenced his compositional style. He started writing liturgical and religious pieces, something he had never done before: Litanies à la vierge noire were composed right after the visit in 1936; then, a year later, a Mass; later, in 1941, Exultate Deo, then Stabat Mater in1950 and many more.
Poulenc was active during the War, writing many songs and some incidental music. He also wrote a ballet, Les animaux modèles, staged by Serge Lifar at the Paris Opera. After the war he wrote two very important operas, Dialogues des carmélites in1956 and La voix humaine based on a play by Jean Cocteau, for a single voice, two years later. Poulenc died on January 30th of 1963.
Here’s his earlier piece, the already-mentioned Concerto for Two Pianos. It’s a 1962 recording, with Francis Poulenc and his friend, Jacques Février, the same pianists who had performed the Concerto during the premier 30 years earlier. Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (it became Orchestre de Paris in 1967) is conducted by Pierre Dervaux.