HALF MONK / HALF RASCAL

Vocal music by French

composer Francis Poulenc

Featuring the virtuoso Danish National Vocal Ensemble under the direction of the eminent English conductor Stephen Layton. OUR Recordings is proud to announce the release of this great choir music by Francis Poulenc, which is standard repertoire for all professional choirs. On this release Stephen Layton and the Danish National Vocal Ensemble, put together a program representing both Poulenc`s secular

and sacred choral music.

Sept chansons:

La blanche neige . . . . . . . . . . 1:07

A peine défigurée . . . . . . . . . 1:32

Par une nuit nouvelle . . . . . . . 1:15

Tous les droit . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:30

Belle et ressemblante . . . . . . 1:49

Marie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:55

Luire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:53

Quatre petites prières

de Saint François d’Assise

Salut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:14

Tout puissant . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:19

Seigneur, je vous en prie . . . . 1:18

O mes très chèrs frères . . . . . 2:00

Ave verum corpus

Ave verum corpus . . . . . . . . . 2:19

Un soir de neige

De grandes cuillers de neige . 1:10

La bonne neige . . . . . . . . . . . 1:30

Bois meurtri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:04

La nuit, le froid, la solitude . . 1:00

Laudes de Saint Antoine de Padoue

O Jesu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:23

O proles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0:53

Laus Regi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:29

Si quaeris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:12

Chansons françaises

Margoton va t’à l’iau . . . . . . . 2:11

La belle se sied . . . . . . . . . . . 1:36

Pilons l’orge . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0:47

Clic, Clac, dansez sabots . . . 2:19

C’est la petit’ fill’ du prince . . 4:34

La belle si nous étions . . . . . . 1:11

Ah! Mon beau laboureur . . . . 2:55

Les tisserands . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:46

Chanson à boire

Chanson à boire . . . . . . . . . . 3:46

This cd is launched in connection to the much praised release of The Nightingale: “New Nordic Music for Recorder and Choir” (2011) with Michala Petri and Danish National Vocal Ensemble. One further cd is

planned for next year.

Poulenc was a man of contradictions. The traditionalists called him a modernist, the modernists called him old-fashioned. The contradictions were almost glaring: a declared homosexual and devout Catholic in the first half of the twentieth century! Courageous? Indeed!

He wrote modern music but couldn’t help creating melodies. That was to be both his good fortune and his misfortune. He knew so much about instruments and voices, and his music sounded so good that it could be regarded as poppish, and many people were loath to admit him to the serious musical world of Europe. Some snobs spoke of “French elegance”

“Gallic esprit” or – even worse – “perfumed music”, and this was not meant as praise.

Poulenc died in 1963. The rascal was there until the end: “Even though you may think the music is in bad taste, you must play your heart out all the same. I am quite aware of what I can do. And pianists must remember that you can never use too much pedal!”.

OUR Recordings 8226906