Springtime in France: Music of Les Six

The UC Santa Barbara Department of Music will present a virtual chamber music recital, “Springtime in France: Music of Les Six,” on Friday, May 7, 2021 at 6 pm PDT as a YouTube Premiere. The concert will feature UC Santa Barbara faculty member and pianist Dr. Natasha Kislenko and special guests, including clarinetist Richie Hawley, trumpeter Matthew Swihart, violinist Chavdar Parashkevov, and pianist Tali Morgulis. The program will include solo and chamber works by the members of Les Six—Arthur Honegger, Georges Auric, Darius Milhaud, Germaine Tailleferre, Francis Poulenc, and Louis Durey.

Following ideas of the well-known poet and playwright Jean Cocteau and composer Erik Satie, this group of young composer friends came together in their negative reaction to weighty German romanticism and complex writings of Debussy and Ravel in the years post World War I. They took their inspiration from street and cafe music in Paris, as well as the transparent writing style of the old masters such as Jean-Philippe Rameau and Jean-Baptiste Lully. In the 1920s, the music of Les Six appeared light, witty, sardonic, and irresistibly joyful.

PROGRAM

View a PDF of the program at https://bit.ly/3vKcejy.

L’Album des Six
Georges Auric: Prélude
Louis Durey: Romance sans paroles
Arthur Honegger: Sarabande
Darius Milhaud: Mazurka
Francis Poulenc: Valse in C
Germaine Tailleferre: Pastorale, Enjoué

Francis Poulenc: Sonata for clarinet and piano
Allegro tristamente
Romanza
Allegro con fuoco

Germaine Tailleferre: Deux Valses and Toccata for two pianos
Valse lente
Valse brillante
Toccata

Darius Milhaud (arr. Claude Levy): Saudades do Brasil for violin and piano
Corcovado
Tijuca
Ipanema

Arthur Honegger: Intrada for trumpet and piano

Georges Auric: Five Bagatelles for piano four hands
Ouverture
Petite marche
Valse
Rêverie
Retraite

Artist biographies are available at https://music.ucsb.edu/news/event/2204.