Alike in the high spirits of his Trio and Sextet and in the melancholy of his late solo wind sonatas—all three of which were memorials to dead friends—Poulenc's music calls for the utmost textural clarity in the crisply pointed, fastmoving parts and tonal finesse in the lyrical passages. The performances by the Lincoln Center musicians on Erato, lively but rather hard-driven, had to contend with the resonant acoustic of a church that made the Sextet (whose horn-player though splendidly assured, was over-assertive) sound somewhat turgid. A similar problem faces Pascal Roge and his friends in the empty spaces of the Salle Wagram in Paris, a far from ideal recording venue for these works. Listen, for example, to the way the sec staccato chord at the end of the been more screens to cut down the reverberation? However, the microphone placing has secured very good internal balance in all the works here: what is lacking is the clean acoustic enjoyed by CRD's Nash Ensemble (who however were recorded at a lower level) and the transparently light, refined approach it facilitated in the Trio and Sextet.
On the new issue, of the larger-scale works it is the Sextet which comes off best: there is finesse in the sentimental presque le double plus lent of the first movement and grace in the first section of the ''Divertissement'', but the lyrical episode in the last movement is less expressively handled than in the Nash's performance. The opening of the Trio is well poised, the Presto has fantasy, and there is sensitive observance of dynamics in the gentle Andante; but the resonant surroundings (conspicuous in the Presto) dictate a slightly cautious speed for the Tres vif finale and take the edge off the spick-and-span playing.
The programme on this new issue is very largely the same as on the Erato disc, so that direct comparisons of the solo wind sonatas seem to be called for; and in general the French players strike one as a good deal more idiomatic than their transatlantic rivals, accomplished as they are. Michel Portal appears to be conscious of the resonance that affects the outer movements of his Clarinet Sonata: he is a bit slow in places in the first Allegro, but at least he responds to Poulenc's marking of tristamente (which could scarcely be deduced from de Peyer's reading), and he doesn't take the finale at too breakneck a speed. Patrick Gallois's flute tone is very beautiful, steadier than Paula Robinson's with its quick vibrato, and without the shrillness of her high notes: she too conveys little of the malinconio of Poulenc's first movement. Gallois and Roge, who is in excellent form throughout the disc, a supportive but unselfish partner, enter with gusto into the high jinks of the finale. For me, the highlight of this disc is the Oboe Sonata. Leonard Arner, on Erato, produces a rich, well-projected tone and is a more extrovert player, but there are occasional imperfections in his intonation (low notes in the ''Deploration'' the final high D in the first movement): Maurice Bourgue's is a lovely performance which most touchingly suggests Poulenc's sorrow at the death of Prokofiev (whose Third Piano Concerto is alluded to in the Sextet). His tone is delicate and sweet, with the subtlest of gradations, and the volatility of the outer parts of the scherzo is admirably contrasted with his expressiveness in the lyrical central section.'