The Piano Concerto in

C-sharp minor C-sharp minor is a minor scale based on C, with the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of four sharps. The C-sharp natural minor scale is: : Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale ar ...

, FP 146, by French composer

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-kno ...

is the last of his five concertos. Written in 1949 on commission from the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...

, it has three movements and a duration of about 19 minutes.

Background

The tuneful, energetic concerto was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to restore relations between Paris, Poulenc's hometown, and the United States after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was premiered by the BSO with Charles Munch conducting and the composer at the piano on 6 January 1950, but was not particularly well received. It was noted that there was "more sympathy than real enthusiasm," which the composer attributed to the notion that the audience had listened to too much

Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...

. One critic wrote in

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...

: "Certainly it isn’t a concerto at all but a little picture of manners, done up by a minor master." But Poulenc wrote: "I lead an austere existence in this very

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

town."

Structure

Each of the concerto's three movements is shorter than the one before: # Allegretto — A first theme in C sharp minor is exposed by the soloist to which other melodic motifs in a lyrical and sensual spirit gather around. A median largo of mystical inspiration follows before the resumption of the initial theme. Average performance time: 10 minutes. # Andante con moto — First rustic and melancholic theme in E flat major, then follows a passage marked ''gracieux'' before the resumption of the starting theme and a coda where E flat major alternates with E flat minor. Average performance time: 5 minutes. # Rondeau à la française — Finale which, inspired by a negro spiritual drawn from a sailor's song, the rhythm of Brazilian matchiche and the French-cancan adopts a very casual and popular tone. F-sharp minor. Average performance time: 4.5 minutes. The first, reminiscent of various

Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...

themes, meanders here and there, never quite making up its mind; there are subdued hints of the approaching Poulenc opera

Dialogues of the Carmelites ' (''Dialogues of the Carmelites''), FP 159, is an opera in three acts, divided into twelve scenes with linking orchestral interludes, with music and libretto by Francis Poulenc, completed in 1956. The composer's second opera, Poulenc wrote the ...

. The ''Andante con moto'' acquires a certain airy repose after its tender and sad start. The last movement incorporates the old sea chant ''

A la claire fontaine A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes' ...

'', which begins the same and was thus mistaken for

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Minstrel show, minstrel music during the Romantic music, Romantic ...

's Swanee River; Poulenc incorporates various Brazilian '' Maxixe'' rhythms.

References

Bibliography

External links

* * Piano Concerto performance by

François-René Duchâble François-René Duchâble (born 22 April 1952, in Paris) is a French pianist. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, and at the age of 13 won the institution's first prize in piano. Three years later, he placed 11th at the Queen Elisabeth Mus ...

James Conlon James Conlon (born March 18, 1950) is an American conductor. He is currently the music director of Los Angeles Opera, principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, and artistic advisor to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Early ...

, and the

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (RPhO; nl, Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest) is a Dutch symphony orchestra based in Rotterdam. Its primary venue is the concert hall De Doelen. The RPhO is considered one of the Netherlands' two principal orc ...

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{{portal bar , music, France Compositions by Francis Poulenc 1949 compositions

Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-kno ...

Compositions in C-sharp minor Music commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra