Sonata for piano duet

Prélude

Rustique

Final

It is a pity that Poulenc, who wrote several important and highly accomplished pieces for two pianos, completed only one work for four hands at one piano. It is fortunate, on the other hand, that the piano-duet Sonata - written when the composer was no more than nineteen, at about the same time as the Mouvements perpétuels - is one of the most amusing scores of its kind. The Prélude, for example, while clearly echoing Stravinsky, offers uncanny anticipations of minimalism, a most capricious kind of continuity, a quite unpredictable construction and extravagantly witty harmonies. The disingenuous Rustique - so called, presumably, because of its modal orientation and its simple rhythms - is no less sophisticated than the Satie model which inspired it. The Final confirms as much by demonstrating that the same theme thrives just as well in a busy city setting.