Faure and Poulenc have a common denominator. Though radically different in temperament they are both inimitably French. And there, all similarity ends. Faure was a master of elegance and finesse, journeying from his early urbanity and delicate eroticism to the unsettling austerity of his later years. Poulenc, who described himself as ' as a cross between 'a monk and a gutter-snipe' left it to others to expand his description whether affectionately or aggressively into 'monk and naughty boy' and 'monk and thug.' Exuberance personified, even he had his darker side, notably in music such as 'Dialogues des Carmelites' and 'La Voix humaine.' Again, for Ned Rorem, whose work shows the strong influence of Poulenc, he was 'deeply devout and uncontrollably sensual.'
Poulenc claimed that in his youth Faure gave him nightmares. Enlarging in a characteristically bewildering and incoherent style he wrote, 'I hated Faure until I was thirty, and then I realised that he was a very great composer. So, I made an effort with myself and began to admire him. It's an attitude I've maintained and built on but it is for me an unbearable kind of music; what can I do about it'?
Turning from such incoherence the present disc, showing opposite sides of the French coin, offers classic examples of the Gallic spirit. The Faure Ballade, heard here in its second and revised version for piano and orchestra, inhabits an idealised dream world, an evocation of halcyon, half remembered summer days and bird-haunted forests. A far cry from the later,opus 111, Fantasie, which although dedicated to Cortot met with his disapproval. Former luxuriance and modulatory ease are now replaced with a tighter, angular less easily assimilated idiom.
In Poulenc a related contrast occurs. Whereas the Piano Concerto is a 'divertissement' and a mirror of Parisian gaiety, the 'Aubade' is of sterner stuff a morning love- song with the influence of Stravinsky.
The Concerto was first perofrmed with the composer as soloist in Boston, for Poulenc an unforgivably puritan city, a far cry from his beloved Paris. A playful inclusion of the American folk song, 'Way down upon the Swanee River' went unnoticed by some, and was viewed as patronising by others. The presence, too, of the 'Maxixe,' Brazil's answer to the Argentinian Tango, also failed to please.
Today we can take a lighter view, and revel in fun and fancy free, to say nothing of the central Andante's gently pulsing magic.
Romain Descharmes is the efficient soloist though you can hear more committed performances on record from Louis Lortie in the Faure Ballade(Chandos), Alicia de Larrocha in the Fantasie(Decca) and a more vivacious way with the Poulenc Concerto from Cristina Ortiz(EMl) Nevertheless, the Malmo Opera Orchestra under Michael Halasz enter into the spirit of things, and provided your expectations are not too high this is a gift, and not only for Francophiles.
Bryce Morrison