FRANCIS POULENC (1899-1963) Since I was a little girl, the music of Francis mass of Gallic energy who can move you to WORKS FOR PIANO SOLO & DUO Poulenc has always fascinated me; being born both laughter and tears within seconds. His to devout Roman Catholic Korean parents language speaks clearly, directly and humanely in Montréal, I was raised within multiple to every generation.” backgrounds. I attended a French private school 15 Improvisations 3 Novelettes for girls and fully embraced the fact that Making this album was a dream come true. 1 y No. 1 in B minor [1.35] Novelette in C Major [2.43] I happened to be born in a francophone From the irresistible charm of the 15 2 No. 2 in A-Flat Major [1.37] u Novelette in B-Flat Minor [2.01] milieu. To add to the mix, my parents had Improvisations to the irrepressible bursts of 3 No. 3 in B minor [1.36] i Novelette sur un thème de [2.40] met while studying in Germany and I spoke energy in the Concerto for Two Pianos, the 4 No. 4 in A-Flat Major [1.30] Manuel de Falla to my brother in English. Religion and secularity range of Poulenc’s music and beauty had a 5 No. 5 in A Minor [1.45] always coexisted in my world. wonderfully infectious effect for everyone involved Sonata for Four Hands * in this project! 6 No. 6 in B-Flat Major [1.35] o I. Prelude [2.01] Although Poulenc clearly has no Korean 7 No. 7 in C Major [2.44] p II. Rustique [1.48] connections, his music thrives in the dichotomy Lucille Chung 8 No. 8 in A Minor [1.36] a III. Final [1.58] of the sacred and profane, spirituality and 9 No. 9 in D Major [1.29] light-heartedness, often switching from one FRANCIS POULENC 0 No. 10 in F Major, “Eloge des gammes” [2.11] s L’embarquement pour Cythère * [2.16] to the other quickly and seamlessly while at Born Paris, 7 January 1899; died Paris, q No. 11 in G Minor [0.51] the same time retaining an unmistakably 30 January 1963 Concerto in D Minor for Two Pianos * w No. 12 in E-Flat Major, [2.10] French idiom and a clarity that speaks directly d “Hommage à Schubert” I. Allegro ma non troppo [7.31] to everyone’s heart. The piano provided an engine well-suited to f e No. 13 in A Minor [2.23] II. Larghetto [5.24] Francis Poulenc’s musical imagination. His g r No. 14 in D-Flat Major [1.28] III. Finale [5.55] The two sides of Poulenc’s music are startlingly directly expressive compositional style, free obvious, yet they have to be taken as a whole, of the thorny complexity that characterized t No. 15 in C Minor, [3.23] “Hommage à Edith Piaf” Total timings: [62.14] because together they make a stronger statement. the work of his more overtly avant-garde His music, always identifiable yet original, is contemporaries, found a sympathetic voice so beautifully crafted that it seems to flow in the instrument’s pure, crystalline timbre. naturally from the composer’s mind to our Poulenc moreover possessed an ear for melody LUCILLE CHUNG PIANO ears. Music writer Jessica Duchen beautifully that distinguished him as France’s finest song * with ALESSIO BAX PIANO pinpoints Poulenc as “a fizzing, bubbling composer since Fauré; the same penchant for www.signumrecords.com - 3 - intimacy and emotive immediacy for which he The lion’s share of Poulenc’s oeuvre for the Romantic textures of, say, Brahms’s Intermezzi.) Poulenc composed Improvisations nos. 11 stood unexcelled in the composition of mélodie piano comprises miniatures – the singular The fluidity with which this rakish music and 12 in 1941. The latter, an Hommage à likewise permeates his piano music. delectability of his language found a more passes into the legato B section is itself a Schubert, is an affable waltz. This music natural home in bonbons than in larger, mark of mischief. The disarming tenderness honors the Schubert of the drawing room Poulenc was himself a skilled pianist, cultivating headier courses – and the Improvisations are of the second Improvisation, in A-flat major, Schubertiades – the composer of lieder and a style of playing characterized by colorfulness, among these: fifteen short works, none lasting shows another side of Poulenc – though the keyboard miniatures, designed to delight clarity, and, more specifically notable, sensitive more than three and a half minutes, and devil on his left shoulder has the last word, intimate gatherings of friends rather than use of the sustain pedal. All of these come most not even half that length. They seem, ending the piece with a non sequitur in C major. the majestic Schubert of the Great C Major to bear in his writing for the instrument. on cursory listening, mere ephemera – an Such sly harmonic winks recur throughout the Symphony, or the profound Schubert of Winterreise. As much as Poulenc’s close understanding impression that echoes popular criticism in set. The fifth – dedicated to Georges Auric, of the piano inevitably aided him, it seems Poulenc’s day that, among the young Parisian one of Poulenc’s conspirators among Les Six Improvisation no. 13 in A minor, composed in also to have somewhat confounded him and rabble-rousers known as Les Six, Poulenc – is ostensibly set in a minor, but richly colored 1958, is a seductive number, owing largely complicated his approach to it as a composer. was to be taken the least seriously, an amateur with twisting chromatic lines. to une beaucoup de pédale, setting the “Many of my pieces have failed,” he once next to the more sophisticated Honegger and darkly mysterious melody and sultry harmony confessed, “because I know too well how to write Milhaud. But just as historical perspective The frank melodic sensibility of Improvisation in a smoky film noir. The final Improvisation for the piano ... [A]s soon as I begin writing has recognized the startling originality of no. 7, composed in 1933, contains a whisper is Poulenc’s Hommage à Edith Piaf, and piano accompaniments in my songs, I begin Poulenc’s voice, so does closer examination of Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte. The likewise has a dusky quality, befitting the to innovate. Similarly, my piano writing with of the Improvisations reveal their impeccable following three of the set were completed the cabaret chanteuse. orchestra or chamber ensemble is of a different technique and graceful touch, both on the following year. No. 9 in D Major reflects the order. It is the solo piano that somehow escapes part of the composer and in their demands playfulness of much of Poulenc’s chamber Poulenc’s three Novelettes constitute another me. With it I am a victim of false pretenses.” of the performer. And however one regards music. No. 10 bears the subtitle “Éloge collection of miniatures. The first, in C Major, them, they are undeniably irresistible works, des gammes.” After a sly opening section, composed in 1927, is a thing of beguiling He was equally frank in assessing specific grander aspirations be damned. dominated by a recurring chromatic scale, this sincerity, devoid of the mischief that pervades works. “I tolerate the Mouvements perpétuels, Improvisation turns, without warning, into one the Improvisations. By contrast, the spirited my old Suite en ut, and the Trois pieces. I like The first six Improvisations date from 1932. of the most ravishingly textured of the set, second Novelette in B-flat Major (1928), Très very much my two collections of Improvisations, The first, in B minor, starts off as an impish surrounding lyrical melodies with a luxuriously rapide et rhythmé, is rife with circus charm. an Intermezzo in A-flat, and certain Nocturnes. Presto ritmico with volatile sixteenth-note flowing sixteenth-note accompaniment. Poulenc returned to the form three decades I condemn Napoli and the Soirées de Nazelles gestures played très sec. (Indeed, the set later to compose his Novelette sur un thème without reprieve.” as a whole unapologetically eschews the lush de Manuel de Falla. Said theme comes from - 4 - - 5 - Falla’s El amor brujo: presented at the outset is rumored to have composed the work as 1932 with pianist and childhood friend “In the Larghetto of this Concerto,” Poulenc in the right hand melody, Andantino tranquillo, an excuse to wrap fingers with a certain Jacques Février, at the Fifth International wrote, “I permitted myself, for the first theme, this could serve easily as the love theme prepossessing student. Music Festival in Venice, with the La Scala to return to Mozart, because I have a fondness for a Golden Age Hollywood romance. Orchestra, conducted by Désire Defauw. for the melodic line and I prefer Mozart to all The final miniature on this recording is other musicians. If the movement begins alla The Sonata for Piano, Four Hands, composed L’embarquement pour Cythère for two pianos The Concerto betrays various influences. Mozart, it quickly diverges at the entrance in 1918 (subsequently revised in 1939) can (1951). The music for this brisk vignette The composer acknowledged as much in a of the second piano, toward a style that was likewise be classified as a miniature, despite comes from Poulenc’s film score to the French letter to the composer Igor Markevitch: “Would familiar to me at the time.” The soft lullaby its “sonata” tag. Comprising three movements comedy Le voyage en Amérique. The title is you like to know what I had on my piano that begins the Larghetto might specifically and lasting under six minutes in total, it fits, taken from a Watteau painting, in which Cupid during the two months gestation of the call the mind the Romance from Mozart’s Piano at best, a quite liberal definition of a sonata beckons a coterie of young lovers to Cythera, Concerto? The concertos of Mozart, those of Concerto in D minor, K.