Your weekend challenge: Can you name all six of Les Six?

Your weekend challenge: Can you name all six of Les Six?

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norman lebrecht

May 17, 2019

From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:

Your challenge for the weekend: name all six of Les Six.

Poulenc and Milhaud? That’s average.

Arthur Honegger? Good (unless you’re Swiss)….

Read on here.

Et en francais ici.

Comments

  • Jean says:

    Auric, Tailleferre, Durey… – all there ?

  • Ceasar says:

    Auric, Honegger, Durey, Tailleferre, Milhaud, and Poulenc.

  • Ceasar says:

    It’s too bad they don’t include any Durey. His “Romance sans parole” from l’album des six would work well as clarinet/piano arrangement.

  • RW2013 says:

    The pianist could have played the Romance sans paroles by Durey…

  • John Borstlap says:

    I’m surprised by the reference to colonialism, as if Poulenc wrote colonial music:

    “…………. the kind of music people hummed as they went off to found new colonies.”

    Durey was a stubborn individualist and his communist ideals hindered his career:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Durey

    His music is not communist at all and in attractive Les Six style:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IL3veUx2l0&spfreload=5

    https://alchetron.com/Louis-Durey

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkaHzfCgn78

  • Mustafa Kandan says:

    Only two of them are any good; namely Poulenc & Honegger.

    • Clarrieu says:

      I take from your statement that you’re obviously a better musician than Darius Milhaud… now proof, please.

  • Bruce says:

    Poulenc, Milhaud, Honegger, Auric, Durey, Tailleferre.

  • msc says:

    Try as I might, I can never remember Durey. I don’t think I have even ever heard anything by him. I guess it’s time to find some online.

  • Trevor S. says:

    Putin
    Kim Jong-Un
    Trump
    Macron
    Merkel
    Queen

  • Ruben Greenberg says:

    It’s very unjust that Louis Durey should be so forgotten: a fine composer. I remember him as not being a very good salesman for his works: never talking on the radio or giving interviews, for example.

  • Alceste des Hautes Combrailles says:

    Add on Georges Auric, Louis Durey and Germaine Tailleferre… So easy!

  • clarrieu says:

    From the article: “Francis Poulenc … the only one with a major opera to his credit” That’s surely silly, how about Milhaud’s “Christophe Colomb”, “Maximilien”, or “Bolivar” ? Great works, though underperformed…

  • BrianB says:

    I got five. Oddly, I remembered Durey whom nobody ever hears but forgot Auric.

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