Born in Paris in 1899 and died there in 1963; Francis Poulenc shaped French music of the twentieth century with songs, chamber music, stage works and sacred compositions. He received piano lessons from Ricardo Viñes and deepened his compositional knowledge with Charles Koechlin; from 1920 he belonged to the Groupe des Six. A large part of his vocal music was written for the song duo founded in 1935 with the baritone Pierre Bernac, its texts drawn from Guillaume Apollinaire and Paul Éluard, among others. His renewed turn to the Catholic faith led in 1936 to the „Litanies à la Vierge noire“ and formed an important background to his sacred work. The operas „Dialogues des Carmélites“ and „La Voix humaine“, the „Gloria“ and his late wind sonatas show how naturally song, dramatic concentration and chamber dialogue meet in his work.
Francis Poulenc
Composer / Pianist
