Poulenc: Piano Music Vol 1 (Incls '8 Nocturnes')

Whether it is a work of tender sentiments or of intense emotions, his musical smile was always infectiously charming.

Born in 1899 in Paris, Poulenc wrote his first piano compositions in early 1917. In 1919 the concert audiences heard his three Mouvements Perpetuels and Poulenc became a household name almost overnight. He then joined a group of French composers (along with Milhaud, Durey, Auric, Honegger and Tailleferre) called Les Six. In 1924 Sergey Dyagilev commissioned Poulenc to write a score for the Ballets Russes, and the result was Les Riches ('The Does'). The ballet was a great success. One critic wrote: "The Poulenc score is exquisite… With its ironic and slightly rakish twists, its thoroughly traditional elegance of thought, it goes straight to the point, its one aim being to bring delight".

Many works followed - the Concert Champêtre, the Concerto for two piano, and orchestra, the Mass in G major, songs, chamber music and, of course, more piano pieces. During World War II, Poulenc was an active member of the French Resistance movement. Works from these years include the poignant Violin Sonata dedicated to the memory of Federico Garcia Lorca and the deeply moving, tragic choral work, Figure Humaine. In 1957 he produced the opera Les Dialogue, des Carmelites, and in 1959 La Voix Humaine, with the six-part Gloria for chorus and orchestra in 1961. Francis Poulenc died suddenly at his home in Paris on 30th January, 1963.