Favourite pieces, ernani?

I have always enjoyed Les biches, Les mamelles de Tiresias, many of the songs (particularly Tel jour, telle nuit and Le bal masque), some of the piano music (Melancolie is a favourite), and a goodly amount of the choral music (a capella and with orchestra - Sept repons de tenebre and the Christmas/ Easter motets. I did the Mass in G with my chamber choir in the summer, difficult but well worth it!)

I'm less keen on the concertos, Carmelites and the chamber music (I've played the wind sonatas so many times...)

Lovable is the word - and deeply troubled, even under the froth and humour.

A genuinely human composer.

During a recent library sale (giveaway, really), I picked up a free copy of a 1934 volume entitled Composers of Today -- with interesting career assessments of the young, stratospheric recommendations of the now-forgotten, and fancy prognoses for those in mid-career. Here is the last paragraph on Poulenc, which will surprise (and hopefully delight) Poulenc fans on these boards:

"Unfortunately, during the past ten years [i.e., 1924-1934], Poulenc's significance in modern music has greatly been diminished. Strange to say, the dissolution of the "French-six"-- which was such a happy event for the inspiration of Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud, leading them to their best and richest creations -- played havoc with Poulenc's art. At any rate, form the time he ceased to produce music under the banner of Erik Satie, his music lost its enormous zest and enthusiasm and became stiff with stilted accents. It is, of course, too soon to say that Poyulenc is thru [sic] as a composer: his early works contain too much talent for one to dismiss him because of subsequent tired efforts. But his importance has been definitely on the wane, and today his name plays a rôle in modern French music only because of the original owrks he produced during his youth."

Does this have anything in common with today's perceptions?

I like his song cycles Fiançailles pour Rire and Banalités, but retch at his overplayed Flute Sonata.

I can't stand that awful flute thing, and to think that it's been through so many flutes  .
whilst recently searching around Appolinaire for future opera themes, I stumbled accross this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_mamelles_de_Tir%C3%A9sias

...has anyone heard it (apart from Seiji Ozawa)? would anyone want to here it again???

I would say (not an original statement, but one that is nonetheless true) that Poulenc rediscovered himself by discovering the poetry of Paul Eluard and going back to his Catholic roots. And those events happened in 1935 and 1937. So I would agree with part of the assessment in CD's 1934 volume - those rather creaky concertos mostly date from the late 20s and early 30s. But I think the idea of Les Six as any sort of entity has long been discredited. It was a journalist's invention. Poulenc's early songs and piano pieces are a bit Satie-esque (perhaps) - there's a lot of Stravinsky there too, but after Les biches in 1924 he took some lessons with Koechlin and rather lost the plot...

Ian - I suggest you explore Figure humaine - there really is emotional complexity there. And many of his songs (I've already mentioned Tel jour, telle nuit) repay close study too.

DC - Les mamelles is (are!) well worth the trouble...

Poulenc's one of the deepest composers I know in comparison with what's on the surface; I don't think there's anything I've heard of his I didn't at least like and some of it as as gut-wrenching as almost anything I know.

Don't forget when considering events that changed his life the death of Pierre-Octave Ferroud in a car crash in 1936. That's not an original statement either but it's often considered to have been important in leading him back to his religion.

Absolutely true. He went on a pilgrimage to Rocamadour and had some sort of mystical/ revelatory experience.

You're on the right lines there, Roslyn.