Francis POULENC (1899-1963) DECCA 452 665-2
Sinfonietta, FP 141
Concert champêtre, FP 49
Pièce brève sur le nom d'Albert Roussel, FP 50
Bucolique, FP 160from Variations sur le nom de Marguerite Long
Fanfare, FP 25
Deux Marches et un intermède, FP 88
Suite française, FP 80Pascal Rogé harpsichord
Orchestre National de France
conducted by Charles Dutoit
[78'23"] full-priceby Chia Han-Leon
Francis Poulenc (right), born January 7th, 1899, typifies in many ways the characteristic of being French and being in the 20th century. His music changes mood so fast that it cannot but hold your attention. His talent is huge and output profusely varied, his style cheekily indescribable. Above all, this self-taught composer was an individual - and one who delighted in fun (but could also be deadly serious).
His Concert champêtre is effectively a harpsichord concerto, composed for Wanda Landowska, perhaps the greatest harpsichordist of the early 20th century. It is possible to imagine a piano instead of the harpsichord, but Poulenc's neo-classical clarity and distinct tonal palette demands the softer chinkling of a harpsichord (beautiful specimen below), conspicuous yet unobtrusive.
Poulenc visited Landowska's forested home in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt, north of Paris, and the composer decided to pay homage to the beautiful woods, previously home to Rousseau and and the great French harpsichordist composer Couperin.
The second concerto for harpsichord of this century (after Falla's), it is remarkable for the speed at which it changes mood combined with Poulenc's tongue-in-cheek melodies, in turn mysterious, whimsical, musing and fun. Indeed "fun" is the word to describe this piece and this new recording. So often the mischievious turns and phrases just makes me want to laugh! Rogé’s playing is marked by his usual impeccability, and this disc is also well worth hearing for Dutoit and the ONF's extremely enjoyable accompaniment.
Sample if you can the moment before the ridiculous horn motif at 5'55" of the first movement - it's not long, the mood changes again at 6'00" and again at 6'11" ! On average each "mood" of the fast passages lasts a very long 10 seconds. It makes for a very entertaining piece to listen to and if you're encountering it for the first time, you may find yourself contorting your face in confounded amusement!
This generous 78+ min disc (very much worth the full-price tag) comes with an equally fun Sinfonietta, like the Concert champêtre, performed with a glittering delicacy and capriciousness that only the French can achieve. The first movement is again mercurial in mood, generously full of appealing melodies; the second opens as if in a forest full of dancing fairies to match Mendelssohn's. The soothing Andante Cantabile sports a melody that is suspiciously Tchaikovskian, and in the final movement the dance is taken up again, ending with a sunny and laughing trill of brass.
All the performers on this disc are thoroughly French - no complaints whatsoever. It takes the French to know how to make their woodwind pungent, their brass transparent, their strings skitteringly fleet-footed - and their Poulenc Poulenc! World-renown pianist Pascal Rogé (right) is completely at home on the harpsichord as well as his Frenchman's music - in fact, what appeals so much in this album is the total naturalness of the music-making.
Three fleeting pieces inhabit this disc - the first a Pièce brève sur le nom d'Albert Roussel, for the 60th birthday of that composer. This a light-hearted work, gay and whimsically unserious, easily digestible to any listener new or old. More solemn are the Fanfare, FP25 for woodwind and brass and Bucolique, one of eight movements from the Variations sur le nom de Marguerite Long. The former is in fact a slow work, with an ominous, threatening atmosphere. Well, Poulenc is as unpredictable as they get! Bucolique is part of a celebration of the pianist Marguerite Long - it is a serene, melancholic piece, very beautiful in that distinctively French, misty-perfumed way, with pungent woodwind tingling the air above lush string themes.
Left: "The Rue Montergueil in Paris on 14th July" by Claude Monet, 1878
The Suite française is scored for two each of oboes, basoons and trumpets, plus three trombones, one percussionist - and a harpsichord! Ha, in Poulenc terms, that means: "Let's have some fun!" Written as yet another homage to French dance forms, the seven movements describe their music. These include two rustic Bransleux, a Pavane and Complainte, both slow and meditative, the lullabic Sicilienne making use of the rhythm and a joyous concluding Carillon. The light-hearted Petite Marche militaire delightfully throws in the harpsichord with the brass, muffled bass drum and suspended cymbals! Despite the presence of five loud and heavy brass instruments, the music is remarkably light and transparent, as is the fine Decca recording here.
The Deux Marches et un intermède, FP 88 ("Two Marches and an Interlude" totalling 5 minutes) involves music written to accompany a supper at the 1937 "Exposition universelle". To paraphrase what is written in the CD sleeve: the guests ate pineapple to the first march, the "Marche 1889" (a reference to the Paris World Exposition and the Eiffel Tower); consumed cheese to the "Intermède champêtre" and completed the meal with the Marche 1937 - that's a musical banquet lasting 48 years!
How was the food? Well, the pineapple is fun and light like a light ballet, the cheese again pungent with woodwind and the last march straddling somewhere between humour and mild insanity. That (and this whole review) is just a doomed attempt to describe Poulenc - even his publishers would occasionally give up and just go "C'est Poulenc!". My sentiments exactly!
Happy 100th Birthday, Monsieur Poulenc!
In Singapore, this disc is available at (or can be ordered from) Sing Discs (Raffles City), HMV (The Heeren), Tower (Pacific Plaza & Suntec City) and Borders (Wheelock Place).
Chia Han-Leon admits to having a severe weakness for the sound of "two skeletons copulating on a corrugated tin roof." (That's "harpsichord", courtesy of Sir Thomas Beecham.)
Back to the Classical Index!... or read previous classical music reviews and features at the InkpotOther classical music reviews by this or any other writer can be obtained from the InkVault by doing a key word search with the writer's name.
064: r.17.9.97. up.6.1.1999 ©Chia Han-Leon
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