Francis Poulenc
07.01.1899, Paris - 30.01.1963, Paris
A composer with a huge oeuvre for piano - Poulenc wrote about 40 works for solo piano, 4 piano concertos, several works for 2 pianos / piano 4 hands, a dozen chamber music works and about 100 songs. Among the most important lyricists he set to music with his songs include Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Éluard, Louise de Vilmorin, García de Lorca, Robert Desnos and Jean Anouilh.
See a complete list of Poulencs piano music in the PIANOVERSALRegister
PIANOVERSAL listening tips: Francis Poulenc
Poulenc himself possessed an extraordinary ease playing the piano!
Poulenc spielt Poulenc: 2 Novelettes (1928)
youtube.com_Poulenc_Novelettes
Excerpts from Poulenc's opera "Les mamelles de Tirésias" (1947, Apollinaire). Here Poulenc even sings a few bars from the piano! In the title role the wonderful soprano Denise Duval, a longtime friend. The live concert recording from 1959 is introduced with a short and witty entertainment by the French musicologist and critic Bernard Gavoty aka Clarendon.
youtube.com_Poulenc_Nivel_Live_1959
Poulenc speaks, sitting at the piano and performs with Denies Duval two chansons from "La courte paille" (1960): "Les Anges Musiciens" and "Quelle Aventure"
youtube.com_la_courte_paille
Poulenc talks about the "Groupe des Six".
youtube.com_Poulenc_parle_des_six
and here is a recording by the Costa Rican pianist Manuel Matarita
Improvisation en la mineur (1959)
Manuel Matarita, piano
soundcloud.com_matarrita_improvisacion_poulenc
more information about Francis Poulenc: Association des amis de Francis Poulenc