COMPOSERS: Poulenc
LABELS: Decca Double Decca
WORKS: Piano Concerto; Concerto for Two Pianos; Sonata for Two Pianos; Organ Concerto; Gloria; Sextet; Concert champêtre
PERFORMER: Pascal Rogé, Bracha Eden, Alexander Tamir (piano), George Malcolm (organ), Sylvia Greenberg (soprano); Lausanne Pro Arte Choir, Philharmonia Orchestra/ Charles Dutoit, Suisse Romande Orchestra &Chorus/ Sergiu Comissiona, Jesús López-Cobos, ASMF/Iona Brown
CATALOGUE NO: 448 270-2 ADD (1968-93)
A nicely planned collection of chamber, orchestral and choral works by a composer whose music is everything 20th-century art isn’t supposed to be, yet whose sensibility is clearly of our time. The recordings date from 1967 to 1992, and oddly the sound is better the further back they go. Palpable hits include Pascal Rogé’s delicate irony in the Piano Concerto, and Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir’s pristine, madcap music-making in the Concerto for Two Pianos. Less happy are the backward-sounding harpsichord in the Concert champêtre and Sylvia Greenberg’s weak solos in the Gloria, which is given a static reading under Jesús López-Cobos. George Hall
Poulenc: Piano Concerto; Concerto for Two Pianos; Sonata for Two Pianos; Organ Concerto; Gloria; Sextet; Concert champêtre
A nicely planned collection of chamber, orchestral and choral works by a composer whose music is everything 20th-century art isn’t supposed to be, yet whose sensibility is clearly of our time. The recordings date from 1967 to 1992, and oddly the sound is better the further back they go. Palpable hits include Pascal Rogé’s delicate irony in the Piano Concerto, and Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir’s pristine, madcap music-making in the Concerto for Two Pianos.
Our rating
3
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:06 pm