Concertos for keyboard instruments
Concerto in D minor for two pianos and orchestra FP 61
(version for two pianos, organ and percussion)
Concert champêtre for harpsichord and orchestra FP 49
(version for harpsichord, organ and percussion)
Concerto in G minor for organ, strings and timpani FP 93
Hansjörg Albrecht, organ and director
Yaara Tal & Andreas Groethuysen, piano duo
Peter Kofler, harpsichord · Babette Haag, percussion and timpani
Bach Collegium Munich
My music is my self-portrait,” said Francis Poulenc of his
works. The composer’s personality was as brilliant as
his music, which always contains something surprising,
a change of level, a contrast between the “great”
and the banal and between tradition and the avantgarde.
Hansjörg Albrecht presents three concertos
for keyboard instruments on his new CD of organ
music; he himself takes the solo part in the concerto
for organ, strings and timpani. In the harpsichord
concerto and the concerto for two pianos and orchestra,
he takes on the role of the orchestra, whose part
he plays on the organ. With this, he harks back to
performance practices typical of the early 20th century,
particularly in France and the USA, where “salon
organs” were often used in private salons for small
concerts, and avant-garde composers presented their
new works to an audience of connoisseurs.
The value of this recording is also enhanced by the
two soloists in the double piano concerto, the piano
duo consisting of Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen,
who have been counted among the world’s leading
piano duos for many years.
Twixt
Boulevard & C
hurch
Portrait of an acoustic magician
![](fotos/albrecht/oc637_1.jpg)
“The worst thing is when you want to go with the
fashion and then you find you don’t like the fashion”
/ “I like it when the spirit of religion in the
sun is expressed just as clearly and realistically as
we perceive it in Romanesque capitals.”
These two quotes originate from one of the
most contradictory and at the same time most
significant and brilliant composers of the twentieth
century: Francis Poulenc. A man who saw
himself neither as a revolutionary nor as an innovator,
he was perhaps more French than any
of his composer colleagues. A dandy and bon
viveur, who remained true longest to the ideals
of “Les Six” (the group of six composers to which
he belonged, who all eschewed impressionism,
affectation, bombast and the adoration of Wagner
in favour of a new simplicity and a preference
for everything that was deemed uncomplicated,
such as childhood, vaudeville, the circus, dance
halls and jazz bands), left to posterity an exquisite
and unbelievably elegant wealth of music tinged
with just a touch of charming vulgarity.
Blessed with a lively spirit and a profound
sensitivity and from time to time a cheeky and
mischievous side (in laconic self-description
he referred to himself as “Janus Poulenc”), he
viewed constant changes in sound and style as
perfectly normal aspects of his multi-layered
musician’s personality (“my music is my self-portrait”).
Poulenc blended stylistic influences with
one another instead of exchanging one musical
idea for another, thus combining the lasting
influence of Igor Stravinsky, whom he greatly
admired (in 1921, Poulenc spoke of a “crise de
Stravinskysme” in his work) with his predilection
for “l’adorable musique mauvaise”. This
reference to “wonderfully bad music” is actually
an allusion to some of his favourite melodies,
which Poulenc’s mother played on the piano
to him as a child. What is more, he was a past
master at “quoting” from any number of Classical-
Romantic works by other composers, or alluding
to them in his own works. Poulenc’s life
changed dramatically when in 1936 he learned
of the tragic death of his fellow musician Pierre-
Octave Ferroud and undertook a pilgrimage to
the abbey church of Rocamadour in a mood of
deep shock and in a desire to gravitate to “the
spiritual life”. The peaceful atmosphere of the
![](fotos/albrecht/oc637_4.jpg)
place of pilgrimage seems to have had such a
profound effect on him that his sense of the religious,
until then a very low-key element of his
life, was suddenly awoken, thereby opening up
completely new aspects of his stylistic vocabulary,
which then naturally flowed into his composing
style. This new mix of spiritual, secular
and to some extent profane elements understandably
polarised his contemporaries; some
were deeply shocked, while others wondered at
his magical ability to create such a colourful and
brilliant musical “self-portrait”.
In the first half of the twentieth century many
large, private music venues were built (in France
and the USA, for example), with facilities such
as an organ with orchestral-symphonic registers
and a concert grand piano, where new works for
this combination of instruments (by the likes of
Marcel Dupré, Jean Langlais and Joseph W.
Clockey) could be performed, and established
orchestral works or solo concertos could receive
a new airing by playing the orchestral part on
the organ – the only instrument, thanks to its
rich wealth of varying voices (registers), that is
able to imitate other instruments and the sound
of a great orchestra.
Following in this tradition, I have chosen
for this organ transcription CD two wonderfully
expressive solo concertos by Francis Poulenc,
whom I greatly admire, and have played the orchestral
part with the organ in order to demonstrate
the myriad possible permutations and the
orchestral timbres of the organ, which evince an
even greater and more enticing radiance through
this music than is normally possible in the case
of so many organ repertoire pieces. To partner
these two works, I have chosen Poulenc’s organ
concerto, in which the organ takes the role of
solo instrument. It is acknowledged as the organ
concerto par excellence; in a genre almost of
its own, it is as popular as many of the famous
piano concertos of the twentieth century and is
played worldwide on the great concert stages.
Even though the organ occupies only a niche in
Poulenc’s oeuvre, he appears to have developed
the purity and force of this exceptional instrument
by using it as the accompaniment to the
female choir in his first sacred work, the Litanies
à la Vierge noire, where it has a sweet and almost
hypnotic effect.
The Concerto for two pianos, premiered
at the International Society for Contemporary
Music’s festival in September 1932 in Venice,
follows a relatively simple and comprehensible
format, beginning as it does with two powerful
chords and signalling the launch of a pyrotechnic
display of timbres and rhythms. According
to the composer, who gave the premiere himself
together with his friend Jacques Février and orchestra
of La Scala Milan, this concerto is “100%
pure Poulenc”. He incorporated elements from
two musicians he greatly admired: Stravinsky in
the fast passages (“because he had a brilliant imagination,
a brilliant sense of form and a brilliant
grasp of timbre”) and Mozart (“whom I prefer to
all other composers”) in the Larghetto. In this
work, Poulenc’s typical vaudeville style is interlaced
with passages in sentimental mood.
The Harpsichord Concerto (“Concert champêtre”)
written in 1927/28 for the harpsichordist
Wanda Landowska is a perfect example of Poulenc’s
early neo-classicist style. Stravinsky’s Concerto
for Piano and Wind Instruments of 1924 appears
to have served him as inspiration, as both
works begin with a slow, grave introduction, an
homage to the Baroque French overture, which
develops into a lively Allegro; in the finale of the
harpsichord concerto there is even a short quotation
from the Air from Handel’s Suite No. 5 in
E known as The Harmonious Blacksmith. Added
to this is of course the “historical” sound of the
solo harpsichord. For our recording, we were
fortunate to have one of those great instruments
with stop pedals at our disposal, built in the
first half of the twentieth century, in the hope of
rekindling the Baroque spirit; though they are
not comparable with the copies of real Baroque
harpsichords with which we are familiar today,
these instruments do have their own charm.
Ostinato sequences reminiscent of Stravinsky’s
Rite of Spring, scenes which could provide background
music to a Miss Marple film, and heartrending
chanson melodies all offer a colourful
kaleidoscope of Poulenc’s imaginative powers.
Poulenc himself expressed the view that he had
intended the work to evoke the “forest at Saint-
Leu, where Rousseau and Diderot went walking,
where Couperin and Landowska too had spent
time”. For her part, Wanda Landowska, who
premiered the concerto in 1929 under the baton
of Pierre Monteux, said she felt “completely
unburdened and happy” when playing this concerto.
The Organ Concerto of 1938, which is a
far more serious work, apparently as a result of
Poulenc’s new religious fervour, was composed
as a commission for the Princess of Polignac
to be played exclusively as a concert piece. The
work, influenced perhaps by the profound emotions
of J.S. Bach’s ecstatic Fantasy and Fugue in
G Minor, comprises just one large-scale movement
sub-divided into seven parts; with aural
cascades that mount up like the walls of a great
cathedral, its rhythmic pulsing, the catchy tunes
possibly picked up on the streets of a Paris boulevard
and a mood at times dreamily solemn, it
has the feel of a wide-arching rhapsody. It is remarkable
for the variety of its musical ideas and
its highly sophisticated use of organ timbre with
strings and kettledrums. The composer and
organist Maurice Duruflé developed the organ
register indications to this concerto for Poulenc
and was indeed the soloist at the premiere.
Boulevard & church or A musical balancing act:
“The worst thing is when one wants to follow the
fashion, but doesn’t like the fashion.”
Fashions come and go – so I hope that you will
enjoy this musical perspective on Francis Poulenc.
Enjoy listening!
Hansjörg Albrecht
Yaara Tal & Andreas Groethuysen
The Israeli pianist Yaara Tal and her German
partner Andreas Groethuysen are today acknowledged
as one of the leading piano duos
worldwide; they regularly give concerts together
at all the famous venues and events, the Concertgebouw
Amsterdam, the Philharmonie Berlin,
Alte Oper Frankfurt, Musikhalle Hamburg,
Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Philharmonie in
Cologne, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Wigmore Hall
London, Teatro alla Scala Milan, Philharmonie
Munich, at the Frick Collection New York, the
Teatro Massimo Palermo, Forbidden City Concert
Hall Peking, the piano festival in La Roque
d’Anthéron, the Ruhr Piano Festival, the Salzburg
Festival, the Vienna Musikverein and the
Tonhalle Zürich, to name but a few.
One special hallmark of the duo – alongside
a benchmark unity and spontaneity of playing
– is the creativity of their programme planning
to include and revive unjustly neglected gems of
the repertoire together with the central works of
the literature.
One further element in the considerable
international success of the Tal & Groethuysen
Duo is their wide-ranging discography: together,
the duo have recorded a whole series of works for
four hands (many of them first-time recordings
of works by the likes of Carl Czerny, Reinhard
Febel, Theodore Gouvy, Charles Koechlin, Felix
Mendelssohn, Max Reger, Robert Schumann and
Richard Wagner), and they have already been
awarded the coveted “German Music Critics’
Prize” eight times and the “Echo Klassik” prize
four times as well as gaining a great international
following among both audiences and critics. The
main focus of their commercial recordings so far
has been the first, highly acclaimed, seven-part
recording of all of Franz Schubert’s works for four
hands (which won the Cannes Classical Award in
1998) and the three-part recording of all of Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart’s works for two pianos.
www.tal-groethuysen.de
Peter Kofler
Born in Bolzano, the organist and harpsichordist
Peter Kofler received his first music
training at the Claudio Monteverdi conservatoire
there. He studied organ and church music
in Munich with Harald Feller and harpsichord
with Christine Schornsheim.
During his student days he was given a teaching
post as rehearsal pianist at the College of
Music and Drama in Munich and was made assistant
to Hansjörg Albrecht at the Munich Bach
Choir. Peter Kofler has performed with famous
ensembles such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony
Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Munich
Bach Choir & Bach Collegium, Kremerata
Baltica and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe,
and has also worked with conductors like Mariss
Jansons, Krzysztof Penderecki, Heinz Holliger
and Peter Schreier. His chamber music partners
include Christine Schornsheim, François Leleux
and Ramón Ortega Quero. Peter Kofler regularly
makes guest appearances at international music
festivals as an organist and harpsichordist. CD
and radio recordings round off his artistic activities.
In 2007 Peter Kofler was invited to be the official
harpsichord accompanist at the ARD Music
Competition. The Bücher Dieckmeyer foundation
presented him with the bursary for the promotion
of church music in Bavaria. Peter Kofler is artistic
director of the “Munich Autumn Organ Festival”
and of the Klassikchor vocal ensemble in Munich.
He has been organist at St Michael’s Jesuit
and court church in Munich since August 2008.
www.peterkofler.org
Babette Haag
Munich-born Babette Haag began her study
of percussion instruments in 1988 at the
College of Music in Freiburg/Breisgau, and as
a prizewinner at the German Music Competition
she was included in the nationwide selection
of “Concerts by young artists” which laid
the foundation stone, in the 1992/93 season, for
her solo career, with more than 40 solo performances
all over Germany.
Babette Haag has also been a member of the
Junge Deutsche Philharmonie orchestra and the
philharmonic orchestra at the Schleswig Holstein
Music Festival. With the latter, which was renamed
“Philharmonie der Nationen” in 1995, she
was for seven years solo kettledrummer and leader
of the percussion section under the direction of
Justus Frantz on numerous concert tours in Germany
and beyond, on CD recordings and in the
German TV programme “Achtung! Klassik”.
Since completing her studies in spring 1994,
Babette Haag has been involved in all manner
of different formations: in percussion recitals,
concerts for marimba or percussion and orchestra,
with the Pandora Percussion Ensemble or as
a chamber-music partner to various ensembles
including Duo Arparimba and Trio TriColore,
with the piano duo Paratore, with Alexei Lubimov
& Alexandre Rabinovich, with Klaus
Maria Brandauer or Bobby McFerrin. Her performances
have taken her to many countries in
Europe and to the Baltic states, the USA, Brazil,
Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua and the Sudan. She is
a welcome guest at the big international music
festivals and receives invitations from numerous
symphony orchestras (Rheingau Music Festival,
Ludwigsburg’s Schlossfestspiele, the Schleswig
Holstein Music Festival, the Berlin Festwochen,
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt’s
Museumsorchester, the Staatstheater in
Oldenburg, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra
in Heilbronn, Musikcollegium Schaffhausen,
the Polish Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonie
of Thuringia and the Dresden Kapellsolisten).
Babette Haag passes on her wealth of experience
at home and abroad through many master
classes, seminars and workshops, at places like
the universities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro,
the College of Music and Drama in Khartoum,
the Braunschweig Classix Festival and at the
College of Music in Dresden. Four CDs featuring
Babette Haag are now available.
www.magic-drums.com
Bach Collegium München
The Bach Collegium Munich celebrated its
thirtieth anniversary during the 2003/04 concert
season. The orchestra has made an impressive
name for itself not only in Germany but also
thanks to concert tours abroad, and is in the top
league of international orchestral ensembles. Solo
violinist Florian Sonnleitner has been artistic director
and leader of the orchestra since 1979. Over
the years, the Bach Collegium of Munich has
expanded its repertoire and reputation through
regular and mutually beneficial collaborations
with soloists and conductors of international
standing, like András Adorján, Bruno Weil,
Thomas Quasthoff, Peter Schreier and Wolfgang
Sawallisch and with outstanding choirs like the
Regensburg Cathedral Boys’ Choir (the famous
“Domspatzen”), the Munich Bach Choir and the
Arnold Schoenberg Choir from Vienna.
Since the autumn of 2005 the Bach Collegium
has been performing regularly in Germany
and abroad together with the Munich Bach Choir
under the new direction of Hansjörg Albrecht.
This collaboration has been highly praised in
numerous reviews in the music press and the
close cooperation is being developed further. At
the international “Settembre Musica” Festival in
Turin in 2006 they performed Bach’s St Matthew
Passion with great artistic success. This work was
broadcast live by Bavarian Radio in April 2006
from the Munich Philharmonie venue and was
again broadcast several times by Polish Radio and
Television from St Brigitta’s church in Gdansk
with the same performers in March 2007.
The 2005/06 concert season saw collaborations
with the internationally acclaimed pianist
Cyprien Katsaris, the young cellist Johannes
Moser and star conductor Anu Tali. In the same
period, the Collegium, together with the Munich
Bach Choir, recorded J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio
under the baton of Peter Schreier on DVD.
The reputation of the Munich Bach Collegium
has earned the ensemble musical partnerships
for radio and television recordings with the
German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF,
and with Czech, Hungarian and Spanish TV
stations. Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passions,
performed with the choral society of Neubeuern
and C.P.E. Bach’s Rendez-Vous Nocturne
with Christopher Hogwood are just three of the
highlights of those television recordings. Numerous
CDs have been produced with the Collegium,
and yet another new CD was released
in November 2007 on the OehmsClassics label
featuring J.S. Bach’s secular cantatas, an opera
pastiche with the Munich Bach Choir and the
Bach Collegium under Hansjörg Albrecht.
In September 2009 the orchestra was invited, together
with the Jacques Loussier Trio, to take part
in the 19th International George Enescu Festival
in Bucharest. In the course of the 2009/2010
season, the ensemble will perform, together with
the Munich Bach Choir, works by Bach, Haydn,
Mozart, Verdi and Enjott Schneider.
www.bachcollegium.de