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Track(s) taken from SIGCD263

Deux poèmes de Louis Aragon, FP122

composer
September to October 1943
author of text
Les yeux d'Elsa

Lorna Anderson (soprano), Malcolm Martineau (piano)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
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Recording details: September 2010
St Michael's Church, Summertown, Oxford, United Kingdom
Produced by John H West
Engineered by Andrew Mellor
Release date: May 2011
Total duration: 3 minutes 54 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Dame Felicity Lott (soprano), Graham Johnson (piano)
Ben Johnson (tenor), Graham Johnson (piano)

Reviews

'This is very much the mixture as before in the first of Signum's projected cycle of the complete Poulenc songs … Lorna Anderson sings delightfully the three Lorca songs, very simple in their lyricism … Felicity Lott demonstres her mastery of French operetta style. Signum again provides excellent notes by Roger Nichols and full texts and translations' (Gramophone)

'This second volume of a projected complete survey of Poulenc's songs 'a delightful prospect' begins with one of his earliest and longest examples, the waltz-song Toreador, which Poulenc described as a caricature of a music-hall song. Christopher Maltman sings it stylishly, with Malcolm Martineau contributing his usual artistry in conjuring a whole world of colours and moods from the piano part … singers score pretty high in their projection and pronunciation of diverse texts, and their all-round musicianship … overall this album is guaranteed to bring hours of pleasure—a must-have for Poulenc fans' (MusicWeb International)» More
The songs were composed at the end of the summer of 1943. Someone brought the composer the first edition of Les yeux d’Elsa (published wisely in Switzerland) by Louis Aragon (with his wife Elsa cast in a Nusch-like role of inspiratrice). Poulenc would have skipped the pontifications of the thirty-one page preface and noted a sequence of night-poems, including La nuit de Dunkerque where the uncompromising and self-regarding guardian of Communist party purity turns chansonnier in time of war. Fêtes galantes follows on page 49 and C on page 55. The composer had known Aragon (1897–1982), uncomfortable surrealist colleague of Éluard, since his teens, but his poetry is not Poulenc’s normal stamping ground. As in Miroirs brûlants he conceived a twin-set where a deeply serious song is followed by a helter-skelter scherzo.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 2013

Les Deux Poèmes de Louis Aragon sont du parfait Poulenc. Dans C, Louis Aragon (1897–1982) voit dans la chute de la France entre les mains allemandes, en 1940, le piteux dénouement de siècles de fausses valeurs et d’un patriotisme fondé sur l’exploitation des classes. Sur le papier, les mots peuvent paraître amers et rageurs, mais Poulenc y décèle le déchirement: le poète marxiste et le compositeur châtelain (il possédait une superbe maison de campagne à Noizay, près de Tours) sont unis dans cette chanson par un même droit d’être français. Fêtes galantes est un antidote à un apitoyement par trop nationaliste. La nation qui produisit les courtisans froidement élégants des «Fêtes galantes» de Watteau, sous le règne de Louis XV, est maintenant en plein désarroi, sous l’assaut des envahisseurs nazis. L’élégance n’est plus guère de mise dans la comédie de mœurs, mais les mœurs ont beau partir en fumée, la comédie reste. La vie sous l’Occupation changea bien des choses, mais l’institution de la chanson de cabaret, chantée à plein gosier, vulgaire et poétique à la fois, ne pouvait être qu’insolemment, irrésistiblement française.

extrait des notes rédigées par Graham Johnson © 1985
Français: Hypérion

Other albums featuring this work

Poulenc: The Complete Songs
CDA68021/44CDs Boxed set (at a special price)
Poulenc: Voyage à Paris
CDH55366
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