Poulenc's Organ Concerto

Synopsis

The setting was German-occupied Paris, July 10th, 1941, for the premiere of Francis Poulenc’s “Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani,” with the great French organist Maurice Durufle as the soloist.

It’s easy to assume that the dark emotional tone of the piece was due to the Occupation, but the Concerto actually dates from the pre-War years: It was a 1936 commission from the American-born Princess Edmond de Polignac, heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune. In 1936, Poulenc had lost a close friend in a particularly gruesome car crash, prompting the composer, a lapsed Catholic, to turn to his childhood faith for solace. Poulenc may have been in a serious frame, but even so hadn’t lost his sense of humor. Here’s what he wrote the Princess, warning her not to expect a giddy, light-hearted piece like his previous Concerto for Two Pianos:

“Your Organ Concerto has given me a lot of trouble, but I hope that you will like it. It is not the amusing Poulenc, but more like Poulenc en route to the cloisters, very 15th century, as it were. I have grown into a stoutish monk, somewhat dissolute, but tended by an excellent cook.”

For his part, Poulenc cooked up a minor-key Concerto with echoes of ancient and contemporary music. Perhaps because of its ambiguous emotional tone, it was rather coolly received at it initial performances. Over time, however, Poulenc’s Organ Concerto has come to be regarded as one of his finest works.

Music Played in Today's Program

Francis Poulenc (1899 – 1963) Organ Concerto Maurice Durufle, organ; French Radio Orchestra; Georges Pretre EMI 47723

On This Day

Births

• 1904 - German-born American musical composer Frederick Loewe, in Berlin;

• 1913 - Soviet composer Tikhon Khrennikov, in Elets (Julian date: May 28);

• 1960 - English composer Mark Anthony Turnage, in Grays, Essex;

Deaths

• 1899 - French composer Ernest Chausson, age 44, after a bicycle accident near Limay;

• 1918 - Italian opera composer and librettist Arrigo Boito, age 76, in Milan;

• 1934 - British composer Frederick Delius, age 72, in Grez-sur-Loing, France;

• 1964 - American composer Louis Gruenberg, age 75, in Los Angeles;

Premieres

• 1732 - Handel: opera "Acis and Galetea" (in an English/Italian version), in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket, at the request of Princess Anne (Gregorian date: June 21);

• 1865 - Wagner: opera "Tristan and Isolde," in Munich at the Hoftheater, conducted by Hans von Bülow;

• 1921 - Stravinsky: "Symphonies of Wind Instruments" (in memory of Claude Debussy), in London at Queen's Hall, with Serge Kousevitzky conducting; Three days earlier, on June 7, 1921, Stravinsky had attended the British premiere of the concert version of his ballet score "The Rite of Spring," also at Queen's Hall, with Eugene Goossens conducting;

• 1939 - Bliss: Piano Concerto (with Solomon the soloist) and Vaughan Williams: "Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus," at Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic, with Sir Adrian Boult conducting; These works (Along with Bax's Seventh Symphony, which premiered the previous day) were all commissioned by the British Council as part of the British Exhibition at 1939 World's Fair;

• 1941 - Poulenc: first public performance of Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani, in Paris;

• 1968 - Britten: church opera "The Prodigal Son," in Orford Church, near Aldeburgh.