Five Improvisations

No.15 in C minor (Hommage à Edith Piaf)

No.13 in A minor

No.4 in A flat major

No.7 in C major

No.8 in A minor

It is a long way from François Couperin to Edith Piaf but, as Francis Poulenc was well aware, both were essentially French and they were equally legitimate sources of inspiration. The last of Poulenc’s fifteen Improvisations - written between 1932 and 1959 - has so much of Piaf in it that fans of the singer have expended much energy on looking for the song they feel he must have borrowed from her. No.13 is a similarly attractive example of Poulenc’s love of popular song and his uncanny ability both to imitate it and, somehow, elevate it. No.4, written among the first batch of Improvisations in 1932, reflects Poulenc’s affection for two Parisian predecessors, Emmanuel Chabrier and Frédéric Chopin, in a curious but effective amalgam of stylistic features of both of them. No.7 is a classical pastiche magically contrasted with a sentimental popular-song middle section, while No.8 is a satirical but not unaffectionate portrait of the notoriously trenchant personality of the wife of Poulenc’s composer colleague Georges Auric.