Plenty of Poulenc

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

In a terrific NAXOS collection of Francis Poulenc vocal and instrumental works, baritone Franck Leguérinel has a ball singing Francis Poulenc’s Masked Ball (Le Bal Masqué), a zany surrealist concoction with text by the composer’s gay, converted Catholic, soulmate, Max Ernst, whose harrowing end in a French hospital while awaiting extradition to Auschwitz was in ironically tragic contrast to his devil-may-care life.

Poulenc’s sardonically wacky setting of Ernst’s sometimes outrageous, sometimes heartfelt verse is one of several treasures found in the fourth of five volumes of the NAXOS collection Poulenc Complete Chamber Music (8.505258) a set of CD’s that in addition to including several compositions for a variety of instrumental ensembles also offers Le Bestiaire, a miniaturist setting of six of Apollinaire’s descriptions of furry, feathered, and scaled critters.

Also featured in the mostly-vocal volume are four of Poulenc’s settings of Max Ernst’s poems. Ranging from the nonsensical wordplay of C’est pour aller au bal to the poignancy of Poete et Tenor, Leguérinel delivers these little gems with honest vocalism in a pleasantly bright Baryton Martin coupled to a native speaker’s impeccable command of the text.

The Rhapsodie Negre, written when the composer was 17 years old is a silly musical joke that today would be dismissed as a politically incorrect work, were it not for its youthful provenance.

The delightfully varied album closes with Poulenc’s Cocardes, a small collection of instrumental and vocal ditties again featuring the resourceful Leguérinel in the good company of a dozen instrumentalists.

Rafael de Acha     ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”