Antonio Pompa-Baldi - The Rascal and the Sparrow: Poulenc Meets Piaf '2013

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Léocadia, FP 106: Les chemins de l'amour (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
02. Improvisations: No. 15 in C Minor, "Hommage à Édith Piaf"
03. Hymne à l'amour (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
04. Rosemonde, FP 158 (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
05. Un grand amour qui s'achève (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
06. 5 Poèmes de Max Jacob, FP 59: No. IV. Berceuse (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for
piano)
07. Métamorphoses, FP 121: No. I. Reine des mouettes (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for
piano)
08. Métamorphoses, FP 121: No. II. C'est ainsi que tu es (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi
for piano)
09. La Vie en rose (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
10. Les amants d'un jour (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
11. 2 Poèmes de Louis Aragon, FP 122: No. I. C (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for
piano)
12. L'homme aux mains d'argile: Paris (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
13. Je sais comment (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
14. 2 mélodies sur des poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire, FP 131: No. I. Le
pont (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
15. Mon légionnaire (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
16. Tel jour, telle nuit, FP 86: No. VII. Je n'ai envie que de t'aimer (arr. A.
Pompa-Baldi for piano)
17. C'est à Hamburg (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
18. Chansons gaillardes, FP 42: No. V. Couplets bachiques (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi
for piano)
19. Nos souvenirs chantent, FP 182 (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
20. Non, je ne regrette rien (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
21. Mon Dieu (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
22. 8 Chansons polonaises, FP 69: No. II. Odjazd. Le départ (arr. A.
Pompa-Baldi for piano)
23. 8 Chansons polonaises, FP 69: No. IV. Ostatni mazur. Le dernier mazour (arr.
A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
24. Poèmes de Ronsard, FP 38: No. I. Attributs (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for
piano)
25. Montparnasse, FP 127 (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
26. Hyde Park, FP 128 (arr. A. Pompa-Baldi for piano)
27. Parisiana, FP 157: No. II. Vous n’écrivez plus? (arr. A.
Pompa-Baldi for piano)



The contents of this little release are pretty much what the title suggests:
what you get are piano versions of songs by Francis Poulenc and French pop
vocalist Edith Piaf. This sounds a bit contrived, but it works well for several
reasons. First, Poulenc entitled one of his short piano pieces "Hommage à
Edith Piaf," and the two might have met; they certainly had the filmmaker Jean
Cocteau as a mutual friend. Second, there's more than a bit of French popular
song in Poulenc, especially in the harmonies of his songs. Third, you might
compare, as annotator Damian Fowler does in the booklet notes, the melancholy
tone of Piaf's songs with a certain layer of Poulenc's music resulting from
frustrations due to his status as a gay man. Fourth, and most important, the
stylistic boundary is intentionally blurred. For Poulenc what you get are
basically transcriptions; these are done by the pianist, Antonio Pompa-Baldi,
himself. But for Piaf you get "elaborations"; these are by Roberto Piana. These
are harmonically denser than the originals, but retain their emotional flavor.
They might be compared to George Gershwin's instrumental Song-Book, mostly minus
the jazz, and they're intriguing at the very least because no one else has done
anything much like them before. The concept is perfectly well executed by
Pompa-Baldi. It's the kind of thing that surely depends on whether you accept
the basic emotional equation. But try it; you might like it.

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