Prom 07: Faure, Stravinsky and Poulenc

Live at BBC Proms: Marc Minkowski conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers. Poulenc's Stabat Mater, Stravinsky's Pulcinella and Fauré's Shylock.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London
Presented by Ian Skelly

Fauré: Shylock
Stravinsky:Pulcinella Suite

c.20.15 INTERVAL - Proms Extra
Jeremy Sams and Richard Langham Smith introduce Poulenc's Stabat Mater. Highlights of a discussion hosted by Louise Fryer and recorded at the Imperial College Union earlier this evening.

c.20.35
Poulenc: Stabat Mater

Julie Fuchs, soprano
Julien Behr, tenor
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Marc Minkowski conductor

Paris was at the centre of the quest for new clarity and order in music around the start of the 20th century, and tonight's Prom presents some of the most delicious fruits of that quest. Our Shakespeare anniversary celebrations continue with a suite drawn from Fauré's incidental music for The Merchant of Venice.
In his ballet score Pulcinella, Stravinsky dusted down Baroque melodies then believed to be by Pergolesi, lending them an ear-teasing bite.
Spare simplicity and urbane wit usually meet in the works of Poulenc; but in his Stabat mater - a portrait of the mother of Christ beholding her crucified son - Poulenc finds a mode of disarming tenderness and contemplation.