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martle
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« Reply #15 on: 22:06:33, 10-09-2007 » |
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This is a toughie for me, not helped at all by right now having to practice for a performance of the Flute Monstrosity. (Why isn't the oboe sonata, surely the best, played more often?).
Anyway. My reactions to P's work ALWAYS take the following pattern (although I'll confess to being far less well acquainted with it than others here):
1) Charmed by insoussiance, wit, ironic twists, pathos at about 2 minutes in, mediant-oriented harmonic horseplay, Baroque referencing on a par with Stravinsky's (at least on the surface), nice moustache.
2) Hideous boredom sets in after unrealistic amount of time. (What?? He's cadenced like that AGAIN? Where's the counterpoint? Where's the development? Stop being so, oh I don't know, FRENCH!)
3) Hang on. There's more here. There's a dark, brooding edge. There's genuine and subtle play with norms, stylistic hand-me-downs, neoclassical syntax etc.; and a fervent sensibility at work when it comes to words/poetry. And a gift for post-Satieesque dramatic irony.
4) Nah, it's boring. The thing that gets to me most is the formulaic phrase structures. If it's in 2/4, end the phrase with a 3/4 bar. And vice versa. Too lazy, too much absinthe, not enough confidence in the talent that he undoubtedly had.
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Green. Always green.
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #16 on: 22:19:13, 10-09-2007 » |
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You seem to have something against absinthe, Martle... now that's uncharacteristic.  Er, absinthe was banned in France in 1915 anyway...  |
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richard barrett
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« Reply #17 on: 22:23:08, 10-09-2007 » |
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Er, absinthe was banned in France in 1915 anyway... Hmmm. And Poulenc wouldn't have been able to afford it anyway. |
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martle
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« Reply #18 on: 22:23:48, 10-09-2007 » |
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Ollie, whatever. Pastis?  |
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #19 on: 22:25:57, 10-09-2007 » |
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Don't mind if I do.
Actually I don't think I've broached that bottle of 51 from Avignon yet. Back in a tick.
Er, yes, Poulenc.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #20 on: 22:31:27, 10-09-2007 » |
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Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.
(Allegedly)
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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martle
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« Reply #21 on: 22:38:18, 10-09-2007 » |
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Ok, let's check out the cut of his jib.  And towards the end...  |
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #23 on: 22:44:55, 10-09-2007 » |
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Do you know the song C, Martle? Or the prioress's rather grisly death scene from Dialogues of the Carmelites? They're both helpful if you're getting bored of the flute sonata. Especially the second, which is quoted just at the end of the flute sonata finale. Haven't worked out why.
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martle
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« Reply #24 on: 22:51:42, 10-09-2007 » |
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Actually, Ollie, Carmelites is the one Poulenc work which made a lasting impression. I found the relentlessness of the last scene hugely impressive, dramatically at least - the one time in his music where he sticks with an idea for more time than it takes to down the glass of pastis.
Oh alright. That's unfair. Lovely things in that 2-piano concerto.
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #25 on: 23:01:40, 10-09-2007 » |
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Concert champêtre?
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #26 on: 23:03:41, 10-09-2007 » |
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Especially the second, which is quoted just at the end of the flute sonata finale. Haven't worked out why.
Bits of CARMELITES turn-up throughout his instrumental music - I didn't know about the Flute Sonata. That odd chord progression that recurs in CARMELITES (the melody-line of which goes [3/4][ g'/minim, g/crotchet ][ e'/minim e,f#,g#,a,b'/quintuplet][c#'/dotted min] turns up at the end of one of the Piano Preludes... the Prelude concerned begins completely differently, and it's almost as though he's lost patience with the original idea and stuck the Carmelites quotation in at the end? |
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« Last Edit: 23:13:27, 10-09-2007 by Reiner Torheit »
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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martle
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« Reply #27 on: 23:04:09, 10-09-2007 » |
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Green. Always green.
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #28 on: 23:11:22, 10-09-2007 » |
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Then in the great words of Jan van der Smut: 'There is no pleasing you!'. The slow movement in particular is extremely dangerous listening for me. I don't know if I could tell you why. Maybe it's one of those things where if I have to tell you you're never going to know...  Er, Reiner, what were you getting at exactly? |
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« Last Edit: 23:15:19, 10-09-2007 by oliver sudden »
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #29 on: 23:14:13, 10-09-2007 » |
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Sorry Ollie, I forgot to type my own text in after the quote! I've put it in now  |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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