Poulenc: Melodies

Francis Poulenc is one of the most remarkable French composers of the 20th century. Inspired by many (Debussy, Satie, and his fellow composers of the "Groupe des Six") he found his essential own voice, a unique blend of French gaiety and a deep, serious and sometimes melancholic feeling. This new recording presents Poulenc's songs, written between 1939 and 1961, on poems by Apollinaire, Aragon, Éluard, Desnos, Garcia Lorca, Carême, De Vilmorain, showing his innate feeling for the language rhythm, the inflections and total identification with the poem's emotional content. Poulenc himself declared: "The musical transposition of a poem must be an act of love, not a marriage of convenience".

Soprano Valentina Coladonato is a specialist in Early Music and contemporary music. She sang at Salzburger Festspiele, Milan Scala, Wiener Musikverein, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Opéra Paris under conductors like Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Ottavio Dantone, Peter Eötvös and John Axelroth. Pianist Claudio Proietti, a soloist, chamber music player and vocal accompanist, already recorded for Brilliant Classics vocal works of Castelnuovo-Tedesco.