Poulenc: Concert champêtre

“Of prime interest here are the instruments: Immerseel and his fellow pianist, Claire Chevallier, play on Erard concert grands dating from 1896 and 1902. Katerina Chrobokova eschews Wanda Landowska’s heavy-sounding 1912 Pleyel harpsichord in favour of a modern copy of a 1749 French instrument that sounds like a continuo rather than a soloistic voice...Poulenc’s wistful melodic nostalgia, sensual timbres and quirky wit guarantee illicit pleasure.” Sunday Times, 12th June 2011 ***

“The dryest of kettle drums introduces a piquant "Concerto". The Mozartian accents are delivered with pithy wit, while Immerseel and Claire Chevalier play on flirty Erards. "Suite Française" sees the orchestra raid a stylistic dressing-up box, with shades of Berlioz and Bizet. "Concert Champêtre" has an urban tartness that belies its coy title.” The Independent on Sunday, 26th June 2011

“the Erard's mellow French polish does add a warm halo of colour to the central Larghetto, and by no means dampens the joie de vivre of the final. The orchestral playing is finely moulded to the pianos' spectrum of sonority so that after the initial shock of hearing something out of the ordinary, the performance yields up much in finesse, fluency and fun.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2011

“The Concerto for Two Pianos is part music hall romp, part Mozartian pastiche: Immerseel and Claire Chevallier play it for all its worth. The Suite Française for nine instruments is Poulenc’s touching tribute to 17th-century dance: a sensitive performance from Anima Eterna Brugge” Financial Times, 2nd July 2011 ****

“Katerina Chrobokova's performance in the Concert Champetre is attractive in itself, assured and with a wide range of articulation.” International Record Review, July/August 2011

“Immerseel's enthusiasm for this music is evident from the explosion of tension and excitement in the opening of the Concert for Two Pianos...His chosen keyboard collaborators share his energetic quest to reveal the sharp contrasts between the old and the new in this music, especially in the delightful twists of the Concert champêtre.” Classic FM Magazine, September 2011 ****

“Bruges's finest have made a stunning attempt to create the 1930s Parisian sound. As well as the orchestral poster-colours, they employ Erard pianos to give the Double Concerto an entrancing mix of overtones, adding an extra dimension to its gamelan effects...Everything is beautifully played; the only weakness in the performance is a stolidity about the wilder passages.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 ****

“[The Concerto for Two Pianos] is brilliant, witty music. Slightly slower speeds don’t lead to heaviness, and Poulenc’s gamelan references are more pointed than usual. The slow movement’s Mozart pastiche is suavely elegant...The orchestral playing in the Concert champêtre is again brilliant...Wit and charm are present in spades.” The Arts Desk, 6th August 2011

“This set usefully collects Poulenc's concertante works and throws in Les biches and the Litanies à la Vierge noire for good measure. Richly characterful accounts, though far from blemish-free.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2009 ***

“The sheer élan and authority of this performance [of the Organ Concerto] sweeps all before it and the sense of occasion is palpable. Space is of the essence here in that the music can breathe naturally and [Prêtre] captures the ebb and flow of the sectionally constructed score as to the manner born. A hard act to follow!” Gramophone Magazine, January 2010

“The organ is heard within rather than above the orchestral fray and the urgency of the fast passages balances perfectly the sensuous calm of the quiet pages. If you want Weir this is the one to get.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2010

“high-spirited, fresh, elegant playing and sumptuous recorded sound enhance the claim of all this music...Poulenc himself was a pianist of limited accomplishment, but his interpretation with Jacques Fevrier of his own skittish Double Concerto is infectiously jolly.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“This is a disc to treasure. Should the Concert champêtre be performed on the piano? Poulenc said no, but did it often. Bollani's lightly pedalled sound is, for me, utterly convincing and the balance between piano and orchestra is ideal.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2007 *****

“The Turin players match the Parisians every step of the way with their incision, sure-footedness and sheer panache. Stefano Bollini… makes a good fist of the Concerto champêtre… rounding off the disc with his own "elaborations" of two of Poulenc's late Improvisations, No 13 from 1958 and No 15 ("Hommage à Edith Piaf"), from 1959, the last of the cycle.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2007

“Poulenc's third and final ballet, Les animauxmodèles, was begun, he wrote, 'in the darkest days of the summer of 1940, and one way or another I wanted to find a reason for hope in the future of my country'. The fables of La Fontaine provided him with the plot and it was first performed on August 8, 1942, in occupied Paris (in the penultimate section, 'Les deux coqs', Poulenc mischievously quotes the song Non, non,vous n'aurez pas notre Alsace-Lorraine for an audience made up mainly of German officials).
Why we don't hear this delicious score more often is a mystery. Too many good tunes, probably.
Its eight movements are quintessential Poulenc with the characteristic mélange of harmonic and stylistic influences that make their composer's voice so unmistakable. There is also a good deal of self-plagiarising (spot the quotes from the Organ Concerto and the contemporaneous Babar the Elephant). Only one other recording is currently available, apart from the abbreviated version recorded by Georges Prêtre from 1966. The Turin players match the Parisians every step of the way with their incision, sure-footedness and sheer panache.
Stefano Bollini, whose career has been mainly in jazz, makes a good fist of the Concertochampêtre (commissioned by the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, of course, but sanctioned by the composer to be played on the piano as well), rounding off the disc with his own 'elaborations' of two of Poulenc's late Improvisations, No 13 from 1958 and No 15 ('Hommage à Edith Piaf'), from 1959, the last of the cycle.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010