Francis Poulenc's ballet Les Biches (the word can mean "doe" or, playfully, "sweetheart" in English) has vocal passages, but it makes a compact suite when shorn of those and some dance set pieces. It's an ebullient work of Poulenc's youth, lightly flavored by American jazz (although not so much in the curiously titled Rag-Mazurka) and full of great tunes. There are several good recordings on the market, some of which give the music a darker tinge in place of the straight high spirits you get here from the RTÉ National ...
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Francis Poulenc's ballet Les Biches (the word can mean "doe" or, playfully, "sweetheart" in English) has vocal passages, but it makes a compact suite when shorn of those and some dance set pieces. It's an ebullient work of Poulenc's youth, lightly flavored by American jazz (although not so much in the curiously titled Rag-Mazurka) and full of great tunes. There are several good recordings on the market, some of which give the music a darker tinge in place of the straight high spirits you get here from the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland under conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud. What you can't get so easily are the two even more high-spirited works that accompany Les Biches on this Naxos release. Les Animaux modèles, based on a set of modern fables, weaves quotations from Chopin and Mozart into a mix that includes the Satie-esque movement title "L'Homme entre deux âges et ses deux maîtresses," and indeed, the whole piece has a Mozartian flavor. You might sample the Sinfonietta that concludes the...
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