Two Novelettes

No.1 in C major

No.2 in B flat minor

Novelette sur un thème de Manuel de Falla

Being himself a pianist and having become a composer largely through the encouragement of his influential piano teacher Ricardo Viñes, Poulenc wrote much for the piano in his early years. Indeed, it was through the success of his Mouvements perpétuels that, at the age of nineteen, he first became known to a wider public. It is still, in its naive charm, his most popular piano work. The two Novelettes, written in 1927 and 1928 respectively, are clearly by the same composer as the Mouvements perpétuels, even though they are technically very much more sophisticated. Vividly contrasted as a pair, the first Novelette is as poetic in its expressiveness as the second is brilliant in its malicious wit.

Although Poulenc wrote less and less for piano in the later stages of his career, except as an accompaniment to the voice in his numerous French song-settings, he did return to it from time to time as a solo instrument. His very last piano piece, Novelette sur un thème de Manuel de Falla, written in 1959 and based on a characteristic theme from Falla’s ballet El Amor Brujo, is a posthumous tribute to a much admired Spanish colleague.

Gerald Larner©