The Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor, FP 146, by
Francis Poulenc is the last of his five concertos. Written in 1949 on commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, it has three movements and a duration of about 20 minutes.
The tuneful, energetic concerto was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to restore relations between Paris, Poulenc's hometown, and the United States after the Second World War. It was premiered by the BSO with Charles Munch conducting and the composer at the piano on 6 January 1950, but was not particularly well received. It was noted that there was "more sympathy than real enthusiasm," which the composer attributed to the notion that the audience had listened to too much
Sibelius. One critic wrote in Le Figaro: "Certainly it isn’t a concerto at all but a little picture of manners, done up by a minor master." But Poulenc wrote: "I lead an austere existence in this very Puritan town."
The first, reminiscent of various
Rachmaninoff themes, meanders here and there, never quite making up its mind; there are subdued hints of the approaching Poulenc opera
Dialogues of the Carmelites. The Andante con moto acquires a certain airy repose after its tender and sad start. The last movement incorporates the old sea chant A la claire fontaine, which begins the same and was thus mistaken for
Stephen Foster's
Swanee River; Poulenc incorporates various Brazilian Maxixe rhythms.
