Francis Poulenc:  Tu vois le feu du soir

Francis Poulenc: Tu vois le feu du soir

I once asked a pianist friend of mine to read through “Tu vois le feu du soir” with me and he asked, “what’s this song about?”  I have never had a more difficult time answering that question. So I just shared the text with him. Here is the mysterious, surreal text of...
Francis Poulenc:  Quelle aventure!

Francis Poulenc: Quelle aventure!

Ever fallen down the YouTube rabbit hole? You know, you innocently start looking for something and three hours later you look up from your iPad, having forsaken all social niceties (and biological necessities), and wonder what happened to the afternoon? I don’t know...
Francis Poulenc:  Les Chemins de l’Amour

Francis Poulenc: Les Chemins de l’Amour

Shortly after the 1940 Nazi invasion of France, Francis Poulenc was asked to write incidental music for a light drama by Jean Anouilh, Léocadia. It starred the celebrated French actress and singer Yvonne Printemps, and Poulenc took advantage of her presence in the...
Poulenc:  Tu vois le feu du soir

Poulenc: Tu vois le feu du soir

The Wolf Trap concert I’m about to start rehearsing is another one of my quattro stagione pizzas: four groups of songs from four countries, each nationality introduced by a two-piano piece for Joseph Li and me to play. Joe had asked me to include some French music,...
Francis Poulenc:  Priez pour paix

Francis Poulenc: Priez pour paix

The transformative world of Francis Poulenc’s music lends itself well to any song recital program. Two seasons ago, after graduating from Juilliard, I chose to add “Priez Pour Paix” on a recital program I had concocted with pianist Peter Dugan for our...