Free Winter Concerts: City of London Sinfonia, Derek Welton & Alastair Ross - Wednesday 29 February
Time: 13:05
City of London Sinfonia
Derek Welton baritone
Alastair Ross harpsichord
Stephen Layton conductor
Poulenc Suite Française
JS Bach French Suite No 5 in G
Poulenc Le bal masqué
City of London Sinfonia presents a programme that showcases all things French. Poulenc’s Suite Française was commissioned in 1935 by the playwright Edouard Bourdet as incidental music for one of his plays. To the rhythms and melodies of Claude Gervaise, a French court composer of the 16th century, Poulenc adds a touch of the anarchic by adding his own inimitable harmonies. JS Bach’s French Suites, originally written for clavier and today played by Alastair Ross on the harpsichord, are smaller in scale, more elegant and less contrapuntal than the English Suites with which they are often paired. The fifth, in G, was completed in 1723. Finally, the programme returns to Poulenc with the lively but reflective 1932 work Le Bal Masqué, a cleverly orchestrated setting of satirical poems by Max Jacob, performed by baritone Derek Welton.
Free admission
Chancery Lane
