About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

Arriving just in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Francis Poulenc's birth, this collection gathers the multifaceted Frenchman's complete chamber music in excellent performances by the members of the Nash Ensemble. Poulenc may still be best-known and loved for his insouciant side, which is apparent here in works such as the rambunctious Sextet for piano and winds and the jovial Sonata for brass trio, but this aspect of the composer's personality is rarely divorced from deeper feeling and sometimes dark undertones. The latter come to the fore in Poulenc's series of memorials to departed friends and fellow artists: the Élégie for Horn composed in memory of Dennis Brain, the Violin Sonata for Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, the Clarinet Sonata for Sergey Prokofiev, and the Oboe Sonata for Arthur Honegger. Along with these major works, the Nash Ensemble gives jaunty accounts of the angular Sonata for Two Clarinets and Sonata for Clarinet and Bassoon, among Poulenc's earliest works, as well as tiny miniatures for piccolo and for guitar. Among the ensemble's many first-rate players, pianist Ian Brown is the one near-constant on these two discs, and much of the recordings' success is due to his witty and tender presence at the keyboard, the composer's own instrument. Each work sings in its own distinctive voice, and the wide range of Poulenc's invention comes across loud and clear. There have been other memorable recordings of many of these works, but for a complete overview of Poulenc's chamber music this set can't be beat. Scott Paulin, Barnes & Noble

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