Poulenc, Francis (1947): L'invitation au château (musique de scène pour la pièce d'Anouilh), FP 138

Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963) With the exceptions noted below, the performers are: Clarinettist: Ronald van Spændonck (born 1970) Violinist: Thibault Vieux (born 197?) Pianist: Alexandre Charles Martial Tharaud (born 9 December 1968) Cue 5: Violinist tuning: Corinna Desch (born 19??) Cue 8: Violinist: Kolja Blacher (born 1963) Pianist: Éric le Sage (born 15 June 1964) Cues 26 through 30: Clarinettist: Romain Guyot (born 15 June 1969) Violinist David Grimal (born 9 February 1973) Pianist: Emmanuel Strosser (born 4 May 1965) © 1948 by Éditions MAX ESCHIG Tous droits réservés pour tous pays Score available from the International Music Score Library Project This is not the suite; it is the complete incidental music to the play by Jean Anouilh, with all repetitions and cues observed. 00:00 — Introduction Acte I 00:10 — i. Très animé 00:22 — ii. Modéré 01:05 — iii. Lent Acte II 01:44 — iv. Valse brillante 02:37 — v. Le violon s'accorde (The violin tunes) 02:47 — vi. Très calme 03:40 — vii. Mouvement de valse hésitation 05:12 — viii. Tempo di marcia 05:19 — ix. Mouvement de valse hésitation 06:03 — x. Valse des petites taupes (Waltz of the little moles) Acte III 06:46 — xi. Valse brillante (à 1 temps) 07:50 — xii. Mouvement de valse hésitation 09:21 — xiii. Tempo di boston 10:18 — xiv. Tango 10:56 — xv. 11:36 — xvi. Mouvement de valse hésitation 12:19 — xvii. Moderato 12:45 — L'istesso tempo 13:07 — xix. Appassionato 14:11 — xx. Tango 15:28 — xxi. Très vite et très canaille 15:57 — xxii. Tempo di tarantella 16:17 — xxiii. Polka finale de l'acte III (Polka Finale of Act III) 16:34 — xxiv. Presto 17:26 — xxv. Follement vite et gai 18:11 — xxviii. Gavotte [moved as per original recording] 18:18 — xxvi. 18:23 — xxvii. Marche nuptiale (Wedding march) 18:39 — xxix. 18:47 — xxx. Finale Francis Poulenc’s incidental music to Jean Anouilh’s play L’Invitation au Chateâu (The Invitation to the Castle) was written in 1947 and first performed on 15 November. The score was made available for rental by Eschig the following year. Although Poulenc had relatively little affection for the cinema, he felt great affinity for the stage, as his theatre works showed. At the request of dramatist friends, he wrote music for their plays, as he did for Jean Cocteau. It was for the latter that he wrote his first incidental music in 1921 for Le Gendarme incompris (a collaboration with Raymond Radiguet) and his last for Renaud et Armide in 1962. Poulenc also collaborated with Anouilh beforehand, a man ‘full of charm, full of go and dynamism … nice and obliging’ (Philippe Jolivet, Le théâtre de Jean Anouilh). His play – adapted for the English theatre by Christopher Fry as Ring Round the Moon – was the last collaboration between the two artists. In July 1947, Anouilh wrote: ‘That is what is happening. I do not think I want to make it into a play with incidental music, I should not like to have needed music to get atmosphere. I imagine that to express happiness or its illusion in music you would only need to write a very curious waltz, returning all the time to suggest the dance, just one theme occasionally in a minor key when things are going badly, that is all.’ The plot of this pièce brillante is worthy of Pierre de Marivaux. A grand ball is held at the château. The old paralysed mistress of the manor, Madame Desmermortes, has absolutely identical twin nephews, Horace and Frédéric (played by the same actor). Frédéric is engaged to Diane, the daughter of a very rich businessman, but she actually loves Horace. Unable to tolerate the influence she has over his brother, Horace takes advantage of the ball secretly to invite a very beautiful girl, a dancer, who is supposed to humiliate Diane. Surrounded by mystery and charm, Isabelle cannot get away from her possessive and inquisitive mother, who turns out to be an old friend of Madame Desmermortes’ companion. Of course, the secret cannot be kept. Fortunately Isabelle and Frédéric get on marvellously. Thanks to the kind action of the old aunt, everything is finally sorted out in a sea of plotting, misunderstandings, substitutions and about-turns. The music was written for violin, clarinet in B♭ and piano. — Isabelle Battioni (text revised) tr. Wil Gowans For Poulenc's suite of incidental music to Anouilh's other play Léocadia see:    • Poulenc, Francis (1940): Léocadia, musique...   Selon la description de cette chaîne, je ne possède rien dans cette vidéo. La musique et ses interprétations ont été téléchargées exclusivement et entièrement à des fins de divulgation et de diffusion de l'intérêt pour la musique et les arts. As per the description of this channel, I do not own anything within this video. The music and performances have been uploaded for exclusively and entirely for the purposes of divulgation and spreading interest in music and the arts.