Composer of the Week: Poulenc

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Francis Poulenc (1899-1963): Les Six

Les Six

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), Les Six

Poulenc finds success and celebrity on the streets of Paris.

Poulenc becomes a fixture of Paris's thrilling avant-garde scene, as a member of Jean Cocteau's infamous artistic circle, Les Six.

Francis Poulenc was the epitome of Parisian high society: suave, convivial and connected. Or was that how he wanted us to see him? The critic Claude Rostand famously commented that Poulenc was a combination of “moine et voyou” - monk and rogue. This week, we follow the composer from Paris’s artisanal upper class heartland, to the city’s dark underbelly, discovering the moments when the monk and the rogue met face-to-face.

In today’s programme, we’ll hear how Poulenc became a fixture of Paris’s thrilling avant-garde scene, as a member of Jean Cocteau’s infamous artistic circle: Les Six.

Le Bestiaire 
Malcolm Martineau, piano
Thomas Allen, baritone 

L’Album des Six
Corinna Simon, piano

Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel
BBC Concert Orchestra
Bramwell Tovey, conductor

Les Biches
BBC National Chorus of Wales
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thierry Fischer, conductor 

Concert Champêtre
Orchestre National de France
Pascal Rogé, harpsichord 
Charles Dutoit, conductor

Composer of the Week: Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod looks at Poulenc's life and work in the artistic circles of Paris society.

Donald Macleod follows the composer (famously described by one critic as both 'monk and rogue') from Paris's artisanal upper class heartland, to the city's dark underbelly.

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Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

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