Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Sinfonietta in F, FP141 (1947-48)
Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel, collaborative ballet FP23 (1921/57): No 3, Discours du general; No 4, La Baigneuse de Trouville
L’Éventail de Jeanne, collaborative ballet: No 8 Pastourelle, FP45 (1927)
Les Animaux modèles, Ballet in One Act FP111 (1940-42)
BBC Concert Orchestra/Bramwell Tovey
rec. 2022, Watford Colosseum, UK
Reviewed in surround sound.
CHANDOS CHSA5260 SACD [75]
This album was recorded in March 2022, and its conductor, Bramwell Tovey, died in July 2022. Chandos Records has dedicated this recording to his memory, and indeed it makes a fine memorial. Tovey and the BBC Concert Orchestra capture the spirt of each piece, and the splendid surround sound engineering captures the musicians’ work with great fidelity.
The repertoire on this disc is – to be frank – mostly Poulenc of the second rank. His best orchestral music is probably found in his concertante works, and he is valued by most music lovers for his writing for the voice, in song, choral music or opera. That said, that is precisely why this might be such a useful collection, since it is likely to plug gaps even for those with a number of favourite Poulenc recordings on their shelves. Even the two larger works, the Sinfonietta and the ballet score Les Animaux modèles, are not so frequently encountered. And it was a good idea to get the total timing up to nearly 75 minutes by adding the three very short works, each less than two minutes in duration.
The four-movement Sinfonietta plays for nearly half-an-hour. It was a BBC commission premiered in 1948. Poulenc uses ideas from a discarded string quartet, and quotes from some of his other works, including his Sextet and Organ Concerto. The opening flourish sets on its course a very sympathetic account of an attractive work, and even if the middle section of the nine minute first movement treads water at times, more engaging moments are never far away. Tovey’s tempi seem spot on for the manner of the music (Poulenc provides abundant metronome marks). There is as directed no slowing down (“sans ralentir” a favourite marking) for the early lyrical moment in the strings. The molto vivace high-stepping scherzo is given a deft and sprightly performance, and the Andante cantabile features warmly lyrical wind playing, arabesques neatly turned. The Prestissimo finale finds room for an eloquent oboe moment (4’) before a lively coda. A piece of good music if perhaps not always very characteristic, made to sound even better than it is by persuasive playing and conducting.
Les Animaux modèles comes from earlier in the 1940’s, so was written and first performed during the German occupation. It is not often recorded, and although there is a twenty minute suite sometimes heard on disc, here we have the full forty-minute one-act ballet score. The themes of the ballet are drawn from the Fables of La Fontaine. Poulenc wrote the scenario making the various animals more human-like than usual. He wrote "The grasshopper has become an ageing ballerina, the ant an old provincial housemaid, the amorous lion a pimp, Death an elegant woman – a kind of duchess with a mask". The excellent booklet note points out the anti-German references that Poulenc, neither a collaborator nor a resistance member, put into the score for those in the know, which fortunately did not include the German officers in the best seats at the Paris premiere.
Honegger, a fellow member of Les Six, admired the music of Les Animaux modèles, noting that the influences on Poulenc (he notes Chabrier and Stravinsky) had all been absorbed, so it all just sounded like Poulenc. If it does not displace Les Biches as his best ballet, it is very enjoyable and gets an excellent performance. It seems to suit the BBC Concert Orchestra, who must have the most eclectic musical brief of any symphony orchestra, and sound completely inside the score. There are many fine instrumental touches, such as the trumpet’s quiet repeated notes in ‘The Bear and the Two Companions’ and leader’s violin solo in ‘The Grasshopper and the Ant’. Tovey is again scrupulous in his attention to the score’s markings (which are listed in the booklet’s tracking information for each movement).
The three short extras are each a Poulenc contribution to a multi-composer collaboration. ‘La Baigneuse de Trouville’ and ‘Discours du général’ are from Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel, a ballet which Poulenc himself described as “toujours de la merde” but is rather better than that! ‘Pastourelle’ is from L’Éventail de Jeanne, and has probably the best-known melody on the disc, familiar from the composer’s transcription for solo piano. This is an excellent disc of some lesser-known Poulenc, very well performed and recorded.
Roy Westbrook
Published: November 14, 2022
