wondering aloud

there's just this lightness and clarity in the stuff i'm listening to. maybe it's french. or maybe it's just poulenc. after listening to russian's stuff so full of drama and dark humour, innitially poulenc's work is so light it seems to me a little flirtatious. (:p) he doesn't seem to do a lot of layering of sounds. (now that i listen to it again, it's not so ture. but still, the general impression is much lighter than his russian contemporaries.) if they were persons, the russian would be a big sailor, witty and heroic, and the french would be a little dancer, slender and elegant. wonder what image chinese music projects, someone like libai, a skinny and lunatic poet? wonder what experience of the country has to do with stylistic composition, the nationalism thing. but one thing for sure, the music sure is consistent with the art and literature in that particular period.

i'm taking my time to digest this album. again it's just poulenc. it took me a long time to notice his works in gens' album. but once i started listening to them, i couldn't stop. my fav: 2 Melodies de Guillaume Apollinaire: I. Montparnasse.

hmm. but the sixteen is nice, except a few places sound a bit straining. the other version of figure humaine i have is by Rundfunkchor Stockholm with Eric Ericson. they are warmer. but not as intimate.

p.s. i think maybe the russians are more like dancers, while the french are like singers.