Mark Bebbington (piano)
Roderick Williams (baritone)
Emer McDonough (flute)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Jan Latham-Koenig (conductor)

In this second album in his French series, pianist Mark Bebbington is joined by baritone Roderick Williams, flautist Emer McDonough, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig, in a further programme of music by Francis Poulenc.

Featuring some of Poulenc’s most characteristic works, the programme begins with his 1929 chamber piano concerto Aubade originally written with a choreographed ballet element for a private fancy-dress party. The following year saw the composer set Surrealist poems by his friend Max Jacob in his work Le Bal Masqué, which Poulenc described as a ‘secular cantata’. Written in 1956 the Flute Sonata was described by the composer himself as being ‘simple but subtle’. Completing the album is the 1931 Sextet for piano and wind quintet, later revised in 1939.