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): La voix humaine

La voix humaine

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), La voix humaine

A period of personal turmoil drives Poulenc into both a deep depression... and a frenzy of productivity.

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 final programme, we’ll hear how Poulenc experienced a period of personal turmoil in his later life, a period that would drive him into a deep depression, yet also an intense productivity and re-invention. 

Flute Sonata
Philippe Bernold, flute
Alexandre Tharaud, piano

La Fraîcheur et le Feu
Gilles Cachemaille, bass-baritone
Pascal Rogé, piano

Les Dialogues des Carmelites
Sally Matthews, soprano
Yann Beuron, tenor
Jean-Philippe Lafont, baritone

La Voix Humaine
Orchestre du Theatre National de l’Opera-Comique
Denise Duval, soprano
Georges Pretre, conductor

Parisiana 
Gilles Cachemaille, bass-baritone
Pascal Rogé, piano

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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Composer of the Week

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

La voix humaine

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