Francis Poulenc

Francis Poulenc was born in Paris in 1899 and never really left it. Largely self-taught as a composer, he made his name young as part of Les Six, a loose group of French composers who favored wit, clarity, and the tunes of the music hall over solemn grandeur. His early pieces are quick, charming, and a little cheeky.

Then, in 1936, the sudden death of a friend and a visit to the shrine of Rocamadour brought him back to the Catholic faith of his childhood, and a second Poulenc emerged: composer of grave, luminous sacred music and of the opera Dialogues des Carmélites, about nuns facing the French Revolution's guillotine. The two sides coexisted for the rest of his life. A critic's phrase stuck to him: half monk, half rascal.

Start with the Gloria, where the playful and the devout meet, then the Concerto in D minor for two pianos for the pure rascal side.