Francis Poulenc - Suite Française [With score]

-Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 - 30 January 1963)
-Orchestra: Anima Eterna
-Conductor: Jos van Immerseel
Suite française (d'après Claude Gervaise), for winds, percussion & harpsichord, written in 1935, FP 80
00:00 - I. Bransle de Bourgogne
01:33 - II. Pavane
03:50 - III. Petite marche militaire
04:53 - IV. Complainte
06:24 - V. Bransle de Champagne
08:00 - VI. Sicilienne
10:02 - VII. Carillon
Commissioned to provide incidental music for La Reine Margot, a play by Edouard Bourdet about Margaret of Valois, wife of the future King Henry IV of France, Poulenc raided a collection of dances from the characters' period, the sixteenth century. His source was Claude Gervaise's Livre de danceries; his techniques in manipulating the music, however, were entirely his own. Poulenc employed a harpsichord for period color (a harp or piano may substitute, to lesser effect), but otherwise he used a contemporary wind ensemble (pairs of oboes, bassoons, and trumpets and three trombones), plus modest percussion. Poulenc doused the old tunes in his characteristically impertinent, sour harmonies, creating something that sounded both antique and modern.
The concert suite falls into six movements. The first, "Bransle de Bourgogne," has the sense of an intrada with its snappy snare drum rolls punctuating phrases traded among the woodwinds, brass, and sometimes even harpsichord. The "Pavane" begins and ends as a brass chorale, the middle section appropriated by woodwinds. The "Petite marche militaire" is, as its title suggests, short and bellicose, but the piece is so fast that it's more of a fanfare than a march. The fourth movement falls into two sections. "Complainte" arrives as a mournful oboe solo given a spidery response from the harpsichord, with the full woodwind complement soon taking control of the melody. This is followed by an unusually stately and dignified "Bransle de Champagne." Fifth comes a "Sicilienne," another stately piece in which brass phrases are answered by the harpsichord, and once by the woodwinds. The concluding "Carillon" is a perky theme, in some ways an extension of the opening "Bransle de Bourgogne," played in moderate tempo and shifted back and forth from brass to woodwinds to harpsichord, the three instrumental elements only rarely overlapping.
[allmusic.com]

[@Cubanbearnyc]

This works better for orchestra than piano solo. Great music, great composer! Merci Poulenc....!

[@symphonyman1234]

LOVE this wonderful piece.

[@jaydenbrycen770]

InstaBlaster

[@johnnynoirman]

I remember this beautiful piece.

[@PhilippeBrun-qy3st]

Happy christmas.

[@isaiahcruz3431]

I don't know why this sort of reminds me of Christmas Music.

[@duykhang3013]

isaiah cruz me too

[@jsalvation7507]

Its the Instrumentation with all of the wind instruments and percussions. Thats often used in the Christmas Repertoire.

[@delko000]

One of this pieces is called Bransle de Champagne. The Bransle was a 16th century french dance. One of the bransle tune was called "branle de l'official". This tune was reused by an english composer to compose "ding dong merrily on high" christmas carol.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding_Dong_Merrily_on_High
czcams.com/video/hZdQwceu1HY/video.html&ab_channel=HistoricalDance

[@adolfoleongomez4631]

Bellísima pieza. Confieso no conocerla.

[@luisafpatinoosorio613]

I came here for Haruki Murakami

[@johnwasani8338]

This guy has terrible tastes

[@luisafpatinoosorio613]

@@torterrakart7249 Blind Willow, Sleepig Woman

[@KalimbaJammer]

Is it just me, or the wind players should have scaled down their dynamics a little, in order to give the harpsichord clarity to its sound?

[@matthew_pauls]

Hi, harpsichordist here! Firstly, I feel that the harpsichord simply wasn't mic-ed (how do you spell that lol, mic like short for microphone lol, as for mic placement) as well as it could be, lacking lower tones in the overtone series, which I also hear throughout the ensemble in general to be fair, leaving the recording mostly with the upper overtones of the harpsichord, making it sound tinny. Secondly, I will admit that I believe that Poulenc in writing this is a product of the era of still rediscovering baroque period instruments, and as a result to lack of knowledge yet to be gained, this isn't very well "orchestrated" for the instrument; Poulenc treated it's writing as one may treat writing for a piano, not thinking enough about the differences of the instrument besides it's timbre, particularly the sustain of sound in this case. Due to sound production, harpsichord has a strong attack, but the sound quickly disappears relative to a piano, and harpsichordists of the baroque era would arpeggiate (at different speeds) a lot and use a lot of other subtle techniques to compensate the quickly disappearing sound, as well as inability to change dynamic level on one single pitch alone (well, besides adjusting, well I'll use organ terminology here and say "stops" to be brief).

[@graydonhoward1170]

2:29

[@anangryjuicebox2799]

6:24

[@sashakindel3600]

I might have guessed this was Stravinski.

[@RTCMAHL]

I thought it was as well.

[@delpage1]

@@RTCMAHL Me too

[@symphonyman1234]

No chance this is Stravinsky and well it's not even close.

[@thinkOfMeAsAClassicalMusician]

@@symphonyman1234 it's veeery close to pulcinella

[@symphonyman1234]

@@thinkOfMeAsAClassicalMusician Pulcinella is based on themes from the Baroque composer Pergolesi while Poulenc's Suite Francais is entirely based on the Rennaissance Dances of Claude Gervaise. Sorry but I would never mistake one for the other.

[@beecolor]

Tempi are strange...

[@symphonyman1234]

Compared to what? These are the same tempos I have always heard on every recording.