Francis Poulenc - Suite française (1) arr. for Brass and Organ

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (French pronunciation: [fʀɑ̃sis ʒɑ̃ maʀsɛl pulɛ̃k]; January 7, 1899 - January 30, 1963) was a French composer and a member of the French group Les Six. He composed music in all major genres, including art song, chamber music, oratorio, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music. Critic Claude Rostand, in a July 1950 Paris-Presse article, described Poulenc as "half monk, half delinquent" ("le moine et le voyou"), a tag that was to be attached to his name for the rest of his career. Poulenc was a member of Les Six, a group of young French and Swiss composers (comprising himself along with Milhaud, Auric, Durey, Honegger and Tailleferre) who also had links with Erik Satie, Jean Hugo and Jean Cocteau. He embraced the Dada movement's techniques, creating melodies that would have challenged what was considered appropriate for Parisian music halls. He was already identified with this group before he undertook his first formal musical training, with Charles Koechlin in 1921.[3] Poulenc was a featured pianist in several recordings, including some of his own songs (with Pierre Bernac, recorded in 1947; and Rose Dercourt) and the concerto for two pianos (recorded in May 1957). He supervised the 1961 world premiere recording of his Gloria, which was conducted by Georges Prêtre. His recordings were released by RCA Victor and EMI. Poulenc's Perpetual Motion Nr. 1 (1918) is used in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948). Among Poulenc's last series of major works is a series of works for wind instruments and piano. He was particularly fond of woodwinds, and planned a set of sonatas for all of them, yet only lived to complete four: sonatas for flute, oboe, clarinet, and the Elégie for horn. Poulenc died of heart failure in Paris in 1963 and is buried at the cemetery of Pere-Lachaise in Paris. Michael Murray, organ and the Empire Brass