Francis French

This is a pick 'n' mix but nevertheless interesting assembly of Francis Poulenc's highly imaginative settings of French poetry. It ranges from the sublime to the inscrutable, with plenty of doggerel along the way. Like many other discs before and since, this is, in essence, a Felicity Lott with Graham Johnson showcase, and Poulenc, opuses plundered, takes a bit of a back seat. But even so, the brilliance of his writing is irrepressible as he turns numerous sows' ears into little silk purses. Anyone more interested in discovering Poulenc than Lott will not be disappointed at this taster.

The first presentation of A Man and a Woman on CD in stereo – from the original album masters housed in the MGM vaults, in both French and English versions. One of the finest soundtrack albums of the 1960s came in 1966, when Francis Lai composed much of the music for Claude Lelouch's French film A Man and a Woman (Un Homme et une Femme in French). Most European films enjoy very little publicity in the U.S., but A Man and a Woman was an exception because the soundtrack was so superb. With this classic LP, Lai and his allies (who include arrangers Maurice Vander and Ivan Julien) brought together French pop, jazz, and the Brazilian bossa nova (which Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stan Getz, and João Gilberto had popularized in the early 1960s). The bossa nova was as hot in Europe as it was in North America, and France's interest in Brazilian music is underscored by sensuous, caressing Lai offerings like "Aujourd'hui C'est Toi" and the famous title song – all of which feature French vocalists Nicole Croisille and/or Pierre Barouh. While Lai composed most of the melodies, Barouh provided the French lyrics – including some lyrics that he wrote for Brazilian composer Baden Powell's "Samba Saravah." Barouh has a soft, gentle quality to his voice, and he frequently brings to mind another gentle singer: João Gilberto. A five-star collection of mood music, this soundtrack has held up extremely well over the years.

Francis Poulenc - Poulenc d'après Poulenc (1988) {Pearl GEMM CD 9311}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 258 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 166 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 10 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1988 Pearl | GEMM CD 9311
Classical / 20th Century / Chamber Music / Neo-Romantic / Piano / Historical

Francis Poulenc (1899 – 1963) was a French composer almost as famous for his personal life as his music, including his Gloria and piano works. Born in Paris in 1899, Poulenc's mother was an amateur pianist who taught him to play. As a young composer, he was influenced by musicians like Debussy, Satie, and Stravinsky - he caught the latter's attention with his first surviving composition, Rapsodie Nègre, written in 1917.

A few of these small choral gems are well known to amateur choirs, and Poulenc's secular choral pieces are more often presented one at a time on choral albums than in the groupings in which they were originally included. Francis Poulenc: Secular Choral Music offers the composer's very first choral piece, the Chanson à boire for men's voices (1922), but most of the music here dates from either the late '30s (the Petites voix, for female or children's voices, and Sept chansons) or the World War II era (Un soir de neige), the folk-song settings entitled Chansons françaises, and the ambitious Figure humaine, whose final number, "Liberté," was dropped in sheet music form over French cities by Britain's Royal Air Force. Someone once described Poulenc as "part monk, part hooligan," and these a cappella choral works give evidence of both tendencies. The Chansons françaises are cheerful pieces with just a shade of extended harmony, almost French counterparts to Bartók's folk song settings, while the more serious pieces, such as "Un chien perdu" (A Lost Dog), from the Petites voix, have a mystical tinge that links them strongly with Poulenc's better-known sacred choral music.