Masterworks 4: French Voyage

This program brings together three distinct French voices, each with a vivid sense of color and character. D’un Matin de printemps (“Of a Spring Morning”) was composed during the final months of Lili Boulanger’s short life. Already celebrated as the first woman to win the Prix de Rome, Boulanger’s late music reveals a remarkably mature voice, rich in color and harmonic nuance.

Francis Poulenc’s Gloria, featuring soprano Katherine Henly and the DSSO Chorus, captures the dual nature for which the composer was famous. As one friend described him, “There is in him something of the monk and the street urchin.” Poulenc himself spoke of imagining angels sticking out their tongues in Renaissance frescoes, alongside solemn Benedictine monks he once saw playing football. The result is music that moves effortlessly between reverence and playful exuberance.

Rounding out the program is César Franck’s Symphony in D minor, often considered the greatest French symphony of the late nineteenth century. Its cyclical structure weaves themes across movements, creating a powerful sense of unity, highlighted by a quietly stunning English horn solo.

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