Francis Poulenc - Poulenc Plays Poulenc and Satie - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

SOMM Recordings highlights the pianistic mastery of Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963) with a of extraordinary historic recordings including two of his four major concertante works and selected solo piano pieces. To mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Erik Satie (1866 - 1925), this recording also features Poulenc performing piano gems by Satie, whose distaste for academic routine and Romanticism had a profound influence on Poulenc and the other members of the ad hoc music group, Les Six. These performances, ranging from 1930 to 1950, have been brilliantly remastered by long-time SOMM collaborator, Lani Spahr, about whose work Gramophone has said, InchThere are historic releases that make the grade because they are just that - 'historic' - and there are releases that make history because they are musically overwhelming.InchThis opens with Poulenc's Concerto in D minor for two pianos and orchestra, commissioned by American-born heiress Princess Edmond de Polignac specifically to be premiered by the composer and his friend, Jacques Fevrier, at the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Venice in 1932. The vibrant colouration inherent in the piece was inspired by Balinese musicians whom Poulenc had heard at the Paris Colonial Exhibition of 1931. The performance heard here with Georges Pretre conducting the Orchestre National de France was recorded the year before Poulenc's sudden death, and again pairs Poulenc and Fevrier, thirty years after they created the world premiere. While on tour in New York during the winter of 1949 /1950, Poulenc recorded selections of his piano music along with twelve of his favourite compositions by Erik Satie. Poulenc's own music ranges from his earliest works, Trois mouvements perpetuelles, to the C major Nocturne from a set of eight, and the neo-classical Suite francaise of 1935-a homage to his 16th century compatriot, Claude