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. 466. As the music in the classical sense; more likely, Poulenc the island of Aphrodite, Goddess of Love. Liszt, that of Ravel, and your Partita.” Along becomes more turbulent, it nevertheless gave it this designation with tongue ensconced Poulenc’s music is fittingly bright and optimistic. with these, the sound of Balinese gamelan, gives little impression of turmoil befalling the firmly in cheek. The Sonata’s rambunctious which Poulenc had encountered at the idyllic scene; rather, it suggests only a distant Prelude, naïve and sentimental Rustique, and The Concerto in D minor for two pianos, 1931 Exposition Coloniale de Paris, was threat – perhaps the dark turn in a fairy tale, Final bounding with joie de vivre betray composed in the summer of 1932, ranks evidently in the composer’s ear. Following its told in the nursery before bedtime, which will the influence of Stravinsky, Satie, and even alongside the Concerto for Organ, Strings, declamatory opening chords, the first effortlessly find its way to a serene conclusion. Emmanuel Chabrier. (Stravinsky nurtured the and Timpani (1938) as Poulenc’s finest works movement launches into a motoric sixteenth-note work in more ways than one. “It was in the arena of orchestral music. (The Concerto passage, fortissimo, très brillant, which evokes The Concerto’s vivacious Allegro molto finale Stravinsky who got me published in appears on the present recording in the gamelan’s exotic harmonies. The tempo soon is paced by a fleet repartee between the by Chester, my first publisher,” Poulenc composer’s own reduction for two pianos, picks up, conjuring images of leaping two pianists. The music passes through various recounted, “the publisher ... of the Sonata sans orchestra.) Poulenc – whom we have aerialists. Later, the music slows to a romantic episodes of contrasting character, but Poulenc’s for two clarinets, of my Duet Sonata; all those already established as a candid self-critic lugubriousness – maudlin, perhaps, in the irrepressibly devilish humor prevails throughout. little beginner’s works, rather faltering, were – recognized what he had accomplished upon hands of another composer, but cut along A brief remembrance of the first movement’s published thanks to the kindness of Stravinsky, the work’s completion; he wrote to a friend, Poulenc’s razor-sharp wit, such schmaltz gamelan passage colors the final moments of who was very much a father to me.”) Like “You will see what an enormous step is perfectly self-aware, and gleefully so. this fetching Concerto. much of the four-hand repertoire, the Sonata forward it is from my previous work and Gamelan harmonies surface again near the requires deft coordination and navigation of that I am really entering my great period.” movement’s end, now très calme. © 2016 Patrick Castillo the keyboard between the two players. Poulenc Poulenc premiered the Concerto in September

- 6 - - 7 - LUCILLE CHUNG Vladimir Spivakov, Vasily Petrenko, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Peter Oundjian, Gerd Albrecht Born in Montréal, Canadian pianist Lucille and Charles Dutoit. Chung has been acclaimed for her “stylish and refined performances” by Gramophone magazine, As a recitalist, she has performed in over “combining vigour and suppleness with natural 35 countries in prestigious venues such as eloquence and elegance” (Le Soir). the Wigmore Hall in London, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, the Kennedy She made her debut at the age of ten with Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, the Montréal Symphony Orchestra and Charles D.C., the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, Dutoit subsequently invited her to be a the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Madrid’s featured soloist during the MSO Asian Tour Auditorio Nacional, the Great Hall of the Franz in 1989. Since then, she has performed an Liszt Academy in Budapest, and the Palais des extensive concerto repertoire with over 65 Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Festival appearances leading orchestras such as the Philadelphia include the Verbier Festival in , Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, BBC National MDR Sommer Festival in Dresden, Lübecker Orchestra of Wales, Flemish Radio Orchestra, Kammermusikfest, Santander International Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerífe, Orquesta Festival in Spain, Felicja Blumental Festival Sinfónica de Bilbao, Staatskapelle Weimar, in , Music@Menlo, Montreal International Philharmonie de Lorraine, Orchestra Sinfonica Festival, Ottawa Chamber Festival, Bard Siciliana, Belgrade Philharmonic, the Seoul Music Festival in NY, International Keyboard Philharmonic, KBS Orchestra, New Jersey Institute and Festival in NYC, ChangChun Symphony, Symphony, UNAM Philharmonic Festival in China, and the Bravissimo Festival (Mexico), Israel Chamber Orchestra as well in Guatemala. as all the major Canadian orchestras, including Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, National Arts In 1989, she was recognized on the international Centre (Ottawa), Calgary, Winnipeg and scene as the First Prize winner at the Metropolitain, among others. She has appeared Stravinsky International Piano Competition.

with conductors such as , She won Second Prize at the 1992 Montreal © Lisa-Marie Mazzucco

- 8 - - 9 - International Music Competition, at which Lucille Chung has been hailed as “a considerable Camille Saint-Saëns and Mozart & Me. Both as soloist with over 100 orchestras, including she also won a Special Prize for the best artist, admirable for her bold choice of music” CDs continue earning critical praise and have the London and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, interpretation of the unpublished work. In 1993, by The Sunday Times for her recordings of been broadcast internationally. 2013 marked the Dallas and Houston Symphonies, the she received the Outstanding Achievement the complete piano works by György Ligeti the release of a piano duo disc with Alessio NHK Symphony in Japan, the St. Petersburg Award from the Governor General of Canada on the Dynamic label. The first volume was Bax, presenting Stravinsky’s original four-hand Philharmonic with Yuri Temirkanov, and the and in 1994 won the Second Prize at the released in 2001 to great critical acclaim, version of the ballet Petrouchka as well as City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with First International Franz Liszt Competition receiving the maximum R10 from Classica- music by Brahms and Piazzolla for Signum Records. Sir . in Weimar. In 1999, she was awarded the Répertoire in France, 5 Stars from the BBC prestigious Virginia Parker Prize by the Music Magazine, and 5 Stars on Fono Forum Lucille is fluent in French, English, Korean, Bax’s celebrated discography for Signum Canada Council for the Arts. in Germany. The final volume, which also Italian, German, and Russian. She and husband, Classics includes Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” contains works for two pianos, was recorded pianist Alessio Bax make their home in New and “Moonlight” Sonatas (a Gramophone She graduated from both the Curtis Institute with her husband, Alessio Bax and once again York City with their daughter, Mila, and are “Editor’s Choice” and one of the magazine’s of Music and the Juilliard School before she received the prestigious R10 from Classica- artistic co-directors of the Dallas-based Joaquín “Top Ten recent Beethoven recordings”); turned twenty. She decided to further her Répertoire. Her all-Scriabin CD won the “Best Achúcarro Foundation. Alessio Bax plays Scriabin and Mussorgsky studies in London with Maria Curcio-Diamand, Instrumental Recording” prize at the 2003 (named “Recording of the Month … and Schnabel’s protégée, at the “Mozarteum” in Prelude Classical Awards in Holland as well www.lucillechung.com quite possibly my recording of the year” by Salzburg with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and as the coveted R10 from Classica-Répertoire in MusicWeb International); Bax & Chung, a received the Konzertexam Diplom from the France. She also recorded the two Mendelssohn ALESSIO BAX duo disc with Lucille Chung, presenting Hochschule “Franz Liszt” in Weimar, where Piano Concerti on the Richelieu/Radio-Canada Stravinsky’s original four-hand version of the she worked with the late Lazar Berman. She label, which was nominated for the Prix Opus Pianist Alessio Bax creates “a ravishing ballet Pétrouchka as well as music by Brahms also graduated from the Accademia Pianistica in Canada. In August 2005, Bax and Chung listening experience” with his lyrical playing, and Piazzolla; Alessio Bax plays Mozart, in Imola, with the honorary title of recorded Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals insightful interpretations, and dazzling facility. comprising Piano Concertos K. 491 and K. “Master” and from Southern Methodist with the Fort Worth Symphony under Maestro “His playing quivers with an almost hypnotic 595 with London’s Southbank Sinfonia led University under Joaquín Achúcarro where she Miguel Harth-Bedoya, which was released in intensity,” says Gramophone, leading to by ; Alessio Bax plays Brahms is now a Johnson-Prothro Artist-in-Residence. 2006. In 2007 she released a solo album for what Dallas Morning News calls “an out-of (Gramophone “Critic’s Choice” and Pianist Ms. Chung is the recipient of the prestigious the Fazioli Concert Hall Series and recently, body experience.” First Prize-winner at “Editor’s Choice”); Rachmaninov: Preludes Honors Diploma at the Accademia Chigiana Lucille embarked on an exclusive contract the Leeds and Hamamatsu international and Melodies (American Record Guide “Critics’ in Siena, Italy. with Disques XXI/Universal. So far, she has piano competitions—and a 2009 Avery Fisher Choice 2011”); Bach Transcribed; recently released two CDs, Piano Transcriptions of Career Grant recipient—he has appeared released Lullabies for Mila; and for Warner

- 10 - - 11 - Classics, Baroque Reflections (Gramophone international festivals including London’s Bax graduated with top honors at the record “Editor’s Choice”). International Piano Series; the Verbier Festival age of 14 from the conservatory of his in Switzerland; the Risør Festival in Norway; hometown in Bari, Italy, where his teacher He performed Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” England’s Aldeburgh and Bath festivals; and was Angela Montemurro. He studied in France Sonata for maestro Daniel Barenboim in the the Ruhr Klavier-Festival and Beethovenfest with François-Joël Thiollier and attended the PBS-TV documentary Barenboim on Beethoven: Bonn in Germany. He has also appeared many Chigiana Academy in Siena under Joaquín Masterclass, available as a DVD box set on times at such U.S. festivals as Bravo! Vail, Achúcarro. In 1994 he moved to Dallas to the EMI label. His performances have been Bard Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber continue his studies with Achúcarro at SMU’s broadcast live on the BBC (UK); CBC (Canada); Music Festival, Great Lakes Festival, and Meadows School of the Arts, where, with RAI (Italy); RTVE (Spain); NHK (Japan); WDR, Music@Menlo, and has given recitals in Lucille Chung, he is now the Johnson-Prothro NDR, and Bayerischer Rundfunk (Germany); major music halls around the world, including Artist-in-Residence. He also serves with Chung American Public Media’s “Performance Today”; in Rome, , Madrid, Mexico City, Paris, as co-artistic director of Dallas’s Joaquín WQXR (New York); WGBH (Boston); WETA London, , Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Achúcarro Foundation, created to cultivate (Washington, DC); and Sirius-XM satellite radio, New York, and Washington, DC. the legacy of the Basque pianist and to among many others. support young pianists’ careers. An accomplished chamber musician, Bax Hailed by International Piano as “a pianist has collaborated with Emanuel Ax, Sol Alessio Bax’s antecedents are Dutch, German, of refreshing depth,” Bax’s extensive Gabetta, Steven Isserlis, Nicholas Phan, Paul Belgian, and British, and include English concerto repertoire has led to performances Watkins, Jörg Widmann, and the Emerson composer Sir Arnold Bax. A Steinway artist, with such esteemed conductors as Vladimir String Quartet, among others, besides touring and an avid blogger, tweeter (@alessiobaxpiano), Ashkenazy, , Sergiu Commisiona, with Joshua Bell in , Asia, and North and self-professed food, photography and Vernon Handley, Pietari Inkinen, Hannu and South America; Berlin Philharmonic AAdvantage Miles addict, he lives in New Lintu, Andrew Litton, Jonathan Nott, Vasily Concertmaster in Asia; York City with his wife, pianist Lucille Chung, Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Alexander and regularly with Lucille Chung. In 2013, and their young daughter. Shelley, Yuri Temirkanov, and Jaap van he received the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Zweden. Besides giving concerts at London’s Award and Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal www.alessiobax.com Wigmore Hall, L.A.’s Disney Hall, Washington’s Award, which recognizes young artists of Kennedy Center, and New York’s Lincoln Center exceptional accomplishment. and Carnegie Hall, he has appeared at

- 12 - - 13 - Recorded in the Britten Studio, Snape Maltings, Saxmundham, UK from 23rd to 27th January 2015 Producer – Anna Barry Recording Engineer – Mike Hatch Recording Assistant and Editor – Chris Kalcov

Cover Image – © Lisa-Marie Mazzucco Design and Artwork – Woven Design www.wovendesign.co.uk

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- 14 - - 15 - ALSO AVAILABLE on signumclassics

Stravinsky • Brahms • Piazzolla Scriabin • Mussorgsky Bax & Chung Piano Duo Alessio Bax SIGCD365 SIGCD426

“As I listened to Libertango’s sultry introductory pages unravel, “All-conquering performances in fabulous sound: quite possibly its tempo increase, and the finale’s peroration whirl about my recording of the year.” with the utmost in controlled ardour, I wished that Piazzolla had Musicweb-International been alive to hear it as well. Superb annotations and engineering make the Bax Chung duo debut CD all the more auspicious.” Gramophone

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