La Voix Humaine

Dennis Russell Davies

‘Hello, is that you?’ In Jean Cocteau’s monodrama La Voix humaine, which Francis Poulenc set to music as an intense tragédie-lyrique, a woman phones her former lover for the last time, the day before he marries another woman. In this piece, Cocteau’s theme of human loneliness and fear assumes a tragic dimension: the dialogue becomes a monologue; all communication turns out to be an illusion. We do, however, encounter real dialogue and a delight in performance in Poulenc’s Concerto for two pianos – a Mozartian piece of virtuoso fireworks, the high point of Poulenc’s early period – and in the Capriccio for Two Pianos and Orchestra by Philippe Boesmans, an extremely inventive piece dating from 2010. In this concert, the US conductor Dennis Russell Davies, the soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci, and the pianists David Kadouch and Cédric Tiberghien make the link between two great opera composers who dominate the start of this season: Philippe Boesmans and Francis Poulenc.

Programme

• Francis Poulenc – Concerto en ré mineur pour deux pianos et orchestre, FP 61 (1932)
• Philippe Boesmans – Capriccio pour deux pianos et orchestre (2010)
• Francis Poulenc – La Voix humaine, tragédie lyrique en un acte (Jean Cocteau), FP 171 (1958)
   

Photo © Petros Koublis