It’s a wonder we don’t get more recordings of Poulenc’s concertos, but why complain when the three on this disc, dating from 1957 and 1961, are so enjoyable? I long treasured the original LPs, and it’s good to have them back on this well-transferred offering in EMI’s Great Recordings of the Century series. The Concert champêtre is an affectionately mocking look back at the age of Couperin, dressed up as Stravinsky wearing a suit of humor. Written in 1920 for Wanda Landowska, it’s here played by Aimée van de Wiele with appropriately energetic dash. The two-piano concerto finds Poulenc and Jacques Février as the soloists, with the composer no virtuoso but playing adequately enough. The music fascinates: the gamelan-influenced pianos at the end of the first movement anticipate Messiaen’s forays into exotica, the slow movement has a lovely intimacy, and the finale is one of those typical Poulenc cartoon-music romps. Both of these concertos are in monophonic sound (EMI was a laggard in adapting to the age of stereo) but are fully satisfying, solid, and immediate if lacking the last bit of detail, transparency, and soundstage that stereo provides.
The Organ Concerto is in stereo. Something of a demonstration recording at the time of its release, it still sounds good. Much of the work finds Poulenc in his archaic mode, liberally mixed with mystical slow passages, stirring dramatic ones (the opening is a real gut-grabber), inevitable reminiscences of Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony, and Stravinskian rhythmic devices. The fifth of its six sections even recalls the trotting tunes heard at a merry-go-round. As always with Poulenc, an improbable stylistic mixture works to great effect. Maurice Duruflé, who advised Poulenc on the organ registrations and premiered the work, is the fine soloist, and Georges Prêtre’s conducting is a plus, although neither displaces the Zamkochian/Munch recording (RCA) as my favorite.
[Editor’s Note: The two mono items were remade in stereo by the same soloists in 1962 (under Pretre); these generally superior mono recordings were originally released on CD as part of EMI France’s complete Poulenc Edition.]
