Sonata for Oboe and Piano

Following
Matisse’s example, I try to go from the complex to the simple line
Poulenc
dedicated the Sonata to Prokofiev, whom he had met in Paris in 1920.
When asked what Prokofiev thought of his music he replied: Nothing
good, nothing good, but I don’t care. Our relations were: bridge,
the piano and friendship. Poulenc
greatly admired the composer of the Classical Symphony and the
iconoclasms of the piano pieces like Toccata,
Sarcasmes and
Tales
of an old Grandmother.
In his Oboe Sonata, Poulenc is thinking more of the Quintet
Op.39 –
to be heard later in this concert –
and
the radiant simplicity of the 1944 Violin
Sonata.
I
have found the elements of an oboe sonata, the first part will be
elegiac, the second scherzando and the last a sort of liturgical
chant. So
wrote Poulenc in July 1962 and indeed the work begins serenely with
the oboe stating the theme, while the piano accompanies discreetly.
Later the piano rouses itself briefly to impose its presence at the
peroration. At the close the oboe is held over a piano chord softly
shrouded with pedals. The
cheerful Scherzo has the piano in percussive mode with the oboe
striving to match it, while in the trio both instruments sing out
gloriously. The Finale’s lament returns to the elegiacal mood of
the opening movement respecting and invigorating the special genius
of the oboe for great melancholy.