Francis Poulenc – Concerto for organ, timpani and strings

Concerto for organ, timpani and strings by Francis Poulenc is not a typical baroque-sounding piece, even though it might sound like it at first. It’s actually a game-changer from the 20th century.

Some context

It was written in 1938. Poulenc (1899-1963) was a French composer, part of that quirky crew Les Six – modern, ironic, anti-Romantic. He usually wrote playful pieces, but for this piece he was on a totally different mood.

Winnaretta Singer

In 1934 Winnaretta Singer asked Poulenc for a light and elegant piece for organ, to be played (by her, too, an amateur player) in her private salon.

Winnaretta had a interesting story:

• she was an American-born heiress to the Singer fortune (yes, from the Singer sewing machine family!)
• she was the 20th of the 24 children of Isaac Singer
• her mother, for some times, was considered the model for the Statue of Liberty, though this claim was later rated false
• she openly enjoyed many relationships with women. After a first failed marriage, she married an older, gay amateur composer. This second unconsummated marriage had been happy – full of mutual respect and friendship.
• established a salon in Paris in the music room of their mansion on Avenue Henri-Martin. The Polignac salon came to be known as a haven for avant-garde music. Some first performances of Chabrier, d’Indy, Debussy, Fauré, and Ravel took place there.

Ideas can change

The idea of a simple piece for organ was abandoned in favor of a majestic and richly complex score. In fact, Poulenc took four years to complete it, and despite working on other compositions, he was fully committed to creating something truly remarkable.

At that time, Poulenc was going through a personal transformation. The sudden loss of a close friend in a car crash deeply shook him. Searching for meaning, he turned to religion and even made a pilgrimage to Rocamadour. This change had a strong impact on his work, especially on the still unfinished Concerto for Organ.

The Concerto

So instead of a nice little salon piece, he went and wrote this massive, intense, spiritual concerto.

The structure is unusual: a single movement, lasting about 20 minutes, with alternating slow and fast tempo marks.
The opening sections are loud and quite violent, with substantial organ chords, while the following sections are much calmer and softer.

As instrumentation, the Concerto was meant to be performed in a small space, since small halls equipped with an organ were quite common in France at the time, so the need was for a small ensamble.

Poulenc’s Concerto for Organ blends old and new: you can hear echoes of Bach, that suddenly become 20th century harmonies and rhythm twists.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/RduLr1Cp9Ls?list=RDRduLr1Cp9Ls

#concerto #FrancisPoulenc #organ #paris #poulenc #strings #timpani #WinnarettaSinger

KITCHENER WATERLOO SYMPHONY LAUNCHES 2025-2026 SEASON

September 2025 will mark the beginning of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s (KWS) 2025-26 season. Excitement in the region’s classical music scene is high and hopeful. 

“The 2025-26 season marks the next step in restoring the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s prominence in Waterloo Region’s Cultural Communities,” the official 2025-26 season brochure reads. 

This restoration is in the wake of the KWS’s abrupt 2023 closure. Although the 2023 season was canceled just two days before it was set to begin, money had been an issue for some time. In 2019, the organization had a deficit of $730,000.  

Following closures due to COVID-19, subscription sales for the KWS dropped by 75 per cent— from 8,000 members to just 2,000. By April 2023, the deficit had reached $909,000 and was projected to hit $2 million by 2025. The symphony declared bankruptcy in September 2023 and all board members except the chair resigned. 

“[COVID-19] killed an already weakened symphony,” KWS’s new Board Chair, Bill Poole said. 

Rather than restart from scratch, musicians of the KWS proposed to creditors that their debts be non-payable and their bankruptcy annulled. 

“It allowed us to be the same name and organization when applying for artist council grants,” Kathy Robertson, co-chair of the Players’ Committee and french horn player, said. 

These efforts were successful, and  the symphony’s bankruptcy was annulled in October 2024. Musicians immediately got to work putting on a 2024-25 season with money from a GoFundMe campaign. 

“Internally, the players continued to do everything to put the concerts on and to pay for them. They did everything, like bringing the timpani from downstairs, getting stuff on trucks, setting up stands, striking stands,” Poole said. 

The 2025-26 season ushers in a new era for the KWS, one that is decidedly less scattered than the last, but still recovering. 

“It’s operating as a professional organization…with staff,” Robinson said. 

“As minimal staff as you can imagine,” Poole said. 

This leanness is KWS’s solution to remaining deficit-free. Post-September 2023, the board has a strict no-deficit policy, and the Centre in the Square, Waterloo Region’s main concert hall, (originally built with the KWS in mind), will no longer be a focal point in the symphony’s programming. In 2022-23, more than 40 shows were played at the Centre in the Square. In 2025-26, there will only be 3.  

“We’ve gone from the symphony playing lots of concerts in the big hall, and doing as much other stuff, outreach, as possible, to playing a lot of other stuff and a few concerts in the big hall,” Poole said. 

One of these few concerts will be the KWS Fundraising Gala, on Nov. 20, 2025. The symphony will play Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony. On the whole, things look uncertain, yet hopeful to Poole and Robinson. 

“We are committed to keeping the music alive,” Poole said.

#BillPoole #CentreInTheSquare #covid19 #fundraisingGala #GoodCoProductions #KitchenerWaterlooSymphony #LocalArt #localMusic #mahlersResurrectionSymphony #seasonEras #timpani #ZackMason

Can't believe I've been with the TASO #orchestra for 15 years. Which means some of those sticks are more than 30 years old 😅 I think I was a better percussionist in my teens, but I certainly have a deeper appreciation for the music & the playing as I got older. Here's to the next 15 years! 😆

#orkesteriTASO #timpani #mallets #drumsticks

C.H.O.I.R. 2024, Tag 10.
Konzert 3/4

Ravensburg, von Herzen Dankeschön!!!❤️

#musik #music #choir2024 #choir #chor #gesang #vocals #brahms #singing #singen #piano #klavier #klavierduo #pianoduo #pauken #timpani #inconcert #ravensburg #liebfrauenkirche #christinewetzel #landesmusikakademie #ochsenhausen #landesakademieochsenhausen #badenwürttemberg #badenwuerttemberg

Lunch with Dvorak 9, as I attempt to get in my head before the weekend’s concert.
Cracking timp part, but plenty of places where you can really cock it up.

#timpani #percussion #orchestra #dvorak

One of my happy places

(Behind the #timpani at the back of the #orchestra)

#TASO #Sibelius