The phonosphere of Paris during the modernist era constantly riveted the attention of composers living there. They certainly included Jacques Ibert. His colourful orchestral suite Paris, from 1930, is a cycle of musical images of the French capital, among which the composer sought to capture the commotion of the Metro, the atmosphere of the suburbs, elements of orientalism and bourgeois amusements.
It seemed that the musical patronage of the aristocracy was in decline when, a few years later, another Parisian, Francis Poulenc, received an unusual commission for a concerto. The solo part was to be played by the patroness funding the work, Winnaretta Singer, Princesse de Polignac, a talented pianist, organist and painter. During the private first performance, however, in the princess’s salon, it was Maurice Duruflé who sat at the organ, while Nadia Boulanger conducted.
Service at a court was still a typical model for the functioning of musicians in the times of Joseph Haydn. His Symphony in C major, Hob. 1:60, brimful of humour, was based on the incidental music to the play Le Distrait [The absent-minded man] by Jean- François Regnard, staged at the Esterházys’ residence in 1774.
Inspiration from the operatic output of a composer friend of Haydn’s – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – is made explicit in the title of an elaborate waltz by Joseph Lanner, in which one easily finds several well-known Mozartean themes.
Bartłomiej Gembicki
