Word: poulence
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...program for the content might be called imaginative if only for the inclusion of Poulenc's Concerto in G Minor for Organ, Strings, and Tympani, James Johnson, Music Director of the church and organ soloist, has an impressive technique at his disposal. He tore right into the beginning of the Poulenc--a dramatic start with the volcanic sound of double bass and tympani joining the organ...
Gerald Moshell, to no one's surprise managed to secure nearly all of Harvard's best student string players. Their work in the difficult Poulenc piece was very solid: the occasional lapse in pitch during the high accompaniment passages was understandable. Poulenc juxtaposes short lyrical passages with pounding tuttis. The violius were especially sensitive to their phrasing in the gentler moments: but their lead was not followed by Johnson. Nonetheless, the performance was tremendously exciting--especially at the recapitulation of the opening chords that closes the work. The Poulenc deserves to be heard more often. Like the Saint-Saens Third...
...manufacturers of synthetic fibers are suffering. Many of their plants are working at only 70% to 80% of capacity. At that level, the profits of older and smaller plants have been wiped out. Even such giants as Britain's Courtaulds and Imperial Chemical Industries, France's Rhone-Poulenc, Germany's Farbwerke Hoechst and Italy's Montedison have been weakened by financial fibrosis...
Little Help. Villa-Lobos' demanding score, unfortunately, has too little dramatic variety and characterization. The opera focuses on Yerma with such single-mindedness that only an extraordinary singing actress-and such types are rare-could bring it off. Poulenc made the same demand in La Voix Humaine, Jánaček in The Makropulos Case, Cherubini in Medea, Richard Strauss in Salomé and Elektra. All in some degree have paid the price in lack of performances. Yerma needs a soprano who can act like Maria Callas and sing like Leontyne Price. In Santa Fe it had Mirna...
Still, Menotti has already played a decisive historical role in contemporary opera. His success with The Medium (1946) and The Telephone (1947), for example, may or may not have had an influence on such subsequent works as Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress (1951) and Poulenc's La Voix Humaine (1958), but they clearly helped create an audience for contemporary opera...