# Great works by French composers



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Going to create a kind of general purpose thread here. Lately I've been pretty obsessed with French music, and I'm looking to go beyond the mainstays Ravel and Debussy. I know there are dozens if not hundreds, thousands of great French composers out there and I would like to gain more exposure to some of them.

What are some of our favorite works by the French?

I'll start with a few:






Hector Berlioz: Les nuits d'été.






Charles Koechlin: Chorale sur le nom de Fauré. This is a composer I really want to hear more of, so any suggestions for great Koechlin works would be appreciated, especially being that he wrote so many.






Pierre Boulez: Répons.






Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor.






Fauré: Piano Quartet in C minor.

Well, let's hear some more.


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

Koechlin, you say? I'd start with these:





















Another underrated French composer akin to Koechlin is Florent Schmitt, but I'll leave that to others for now.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

You've given me a lot to work with; this is great, thank you. There is a Schmitt work on the same Marriner/ASMF CD with Fauré's Requiem as well as the short Koechlin work I linked; both pieces are dedicated to their mutual teacher Fauré. 

Some more French composers I really want to become more familiar with: Lili Boulanger, whom I'm always forgetting about; Francis Poulenc, who is very intriguing to me but whose music has not quite captured me; Darius Milhaud, who I am totally clueless about but who seems interesting. And Olivier Messiaen, a musical giant of his time.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)




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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Giacomo Meyerbeer - Le Prophéte - Ballet music (Les Patineurs)


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Jules Massenet - Le Cid - Ouverture


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Offenbach: Les Contes d'Hoffmann


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Rogerx said:


> Giacomo Meyerbeer - Le Prophéte - Ballet music (Les Patineurs)


I like your choice - but Meyerbeer was (like JFK) a jam donut.


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

These some of my favorite French composers and works:

George Onslow: A contemporary of Beethoven. His 4 symphonies are quite good, they have nothing to envy to others. But his strong point was the chamber music. He could be considered the father of the string quintet. There are many of them.

Charles-Valentin Alkan: The French Liszt. His music is HIGHLY virtuosic, fun and mystical. The Etudes on major/minor keys and the Les Quatre Ages Sonata are my favorite works by him.

Camille Saint-Saëns: This is my overall favorite French composer because of his large output in every genre, incredible craftsmanship and guaranteed good melodies. All the concertante works, the Symphony No. 3, the wind sonatas, the piano trios, the cello sonatas, the violin sonatas, the organ music, Trois tableaux from La Foi, Suite Algerienne, Christmas Oratorio, Le Rouet d'Omphale, Spartacus Overture are some very nice pieces.

Gabriel Fauré: The chamber and piano solo music outstand out the most. I'm especially fond of the two Piano Quartets, the two Piano Quintets, the String Quartet and the Requiem.

Albert Roussel: His style was mainly impressionistic (first phase) and neoclassical (last phase). The Symphonies 2 and 3, Suite in F, Le festin de l'araignee, Bacchus et Ariane, the String Quartet, the 2 violin sonatas.

Jean Cras: He wrote some quite magical music, often inspired by his journeys. There is lots of exoticism, and magnificently printed in several of his works, among them the Quintet for flute, harp and string trio, the Piano Quintet and the String Trio. All is simply enchanting.

Louis Vierne: His stormy Piano Quintet is his masterpiece. One of the greatest piano quintets I know. Deservedly recommended.

Jacques Ibert: the Flute Concerto, Escales, Paris, Feerique, Ouverture de Fête, Symphonie Marine, Bacchanale, Bostoniana.

Maurice Duruflé: He's mainly known for his unbelievably beautiful Requiem, a very moving work, one of my very favorites in the genre.

Henri Dutilleux: This is a more advanced territory, but nothing wrong with that. The 2 symphonies, the String Quartet Ainsi la nuit and the cello concerto Tout un monde lointain are masterworks.

André Jolivet: Another demanding composer. His music is intriguing and rhythmically complex, a bit similar to that by Honegger, but more dissonant. I mainly remember his great Concerto for ondes martenot and orchestra and the 2 cello concertos.

Charles Koechlin: Already named. I'd like to add some other works that are worth listening: Vers la Voûte étoilée (an intensely poetic and touching piece, don't miss this!), the whole Jungle Book is mandatory, Le Buison Ardent, Le Docteur Fabricius, the 3 string quartets, the songs for voice and orchestra, the Sonatines for oboe d'amore and small orchestra.

Obviously, there are many other composers who deserve a mention, but right now I thought of them.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

As you( OP) starting with opera: Bizet-Carmen



And OP, they are as mainstream as you first post.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

The first great French composer is Jean-Philippe Rameau. (Yes, there are people like Marais, Campra, Charpentier, Montéclair before him.) He wrote a treatise on harmony, and some harpsichord suites, then started composing opera in his 50s. His first opera, _Hippolyte et Aricie_ (1733), caused a scandal; French opera for 60 years was either written by, or modelled on, the Italian Lully. Rameau's music was shockingly innovative, and more musical than French audiences had been used to. It contains a famous Trio des Parques, considered unsingable at the time: 




The Belgian Grétry was a master of the opéra-comique, a typically French form, like a stage play (lots of spoken text) mixed with arias and choruses (similar to the German Singspiel). His most famous work is _Richard Coeur-de-lion_, which has a terrific aria, "O Richard, ô mon roi," sung by the minstrel Blondel searching for the Lionheart: 




Boieldieu was the next really important composer of the opéra-comique. His _Dame blanche_ (based on a Walter Scott novel) was one of the most popular operas of the 19th century, performed 1000 times in Paris alone by 1864. (The Germans also loved opéra-comique; Auber - see below - was a great favourite, too.) is delightful, full of memorable tunes. Here's the overture and the auction scene.

More of Daniel-François Esprit Auber's operas have survived into the modern day. The late Tom Kaufman considered him one of the three giants of French opera, alongside [the German] Meyerbeer and Halévy. His music is elegant, charming, and tuneful. Wagner, surprisingly, was a big fan, particularly of _La muette de Portici_, his grand opéra which was the signal for the Belgian revolution. His best operas include _Fra Diavolo_, about an Italian bandit (overture); _Le cheval de bronze_, set in China and on the planet Venus (before scientists discovered the planet is 462 °C, and has an atmosphere of poisonous carbon dioxide gas and sulphuric acid) (some highlights here); and _Gustave III_, which Verdi reworked as _Un ballo in maschera_.

Jacques Fromental Halévy was considered the leader of the French school of music from the 1830s to the 1850s. His most famous work is _La juive_, a powerful opera about religious persecution and anti-Semitism. Mahler, among others, considered it one of the greatest operas ever written. It has an electrifying third act finale, and the once celebrated air "Rachel, quand du seigneur" (here, sung by Shicoff). His other operas have nearly all disappeared; only 7 of his 31 operas have been recorded (and then mostly in pirate recordings, and sometimes not even in French). I flew to the other side of the world for the first modern production of _La reine de Chypre_, admired by Berlioz and Wagner. (Wagner devoted 9000 words to praising this monument in the history of musical art, and held Halévy up as a model for German composers.) Afterwards, I caught a metro to the Palais Garnier, and stood with my head bowed in front of the bust of Halévy on the façade. _La Reine _is a great opera, a sober, intimate work that shows love destroyed by political machinations, and the redeeming power of honour and friendship. Bru Zane published a recording.

Hector Berlioz was unpopular in his day, regarded as a monstrous eccentric. It really took until the twentieth century to recognise his genius. _Les Troyens_, his epic opera based on Virgil (and Shakespeare), is his best known work; I prefer the life-enhancing _Benvenuto Cellini_, a resounding failure in its day. (You probably know the Carnaval romain overture.) His third opera, _Béatrice et Bénédict_ (Shakespeare again!), has a very slight plot, but some wonderful music - including the ravishingly beautiful duo nocturne. His orchestral work is extraordinary, most famously _Harold en Italie _and the _Symphonie fantastique_, while the Requiem convinced some of its listeners that the apocalypse had come. And don't forget _La damnation de Faust_! Speaking of whom...

I have mixed feelings about Charles Gounod. _Faust _was the first opera I saw; it's still one of my favourites, with its mixture of great tunes (the Jewel Song, the Soldiers' Chorus, the Veau d'Or, the final trio). _Roméo et Juliette _is good, too, if rather too straitlaced for Shakespeare. Many of Gounod's other operas, though, have wonderful numbers, in otherwise weak operas (e.g. the overture to _La reine de Saba_). I wrote about Gounod for MusicWeb International: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Feb/Gounod_article.pdf

Chabrier once remarked: "There are three types of music: good, bad, and Ambroise Thomas." Rather unfair; his _Hamlet_, while not particularly faithful, works well as an opera. (Here is Vanni Marcoux singing some of the arias.) The best commercial recording I'm aware of is Almeida's, with Hampson and van Dam; stay away from the dismal Bonynge recording, and the Met's modern dress production.

Ernest Reyer was a French disciple of Berlioz and, to a lesser degree, Wagner. His _Sigurd_ is a French take on the Nibelungenlied, with more action and characterisation than _Götterdämmerung_. The only recordings, though, are cut by an hour. (Highlights here.) He deserves to be better known; Bizet and Massenet raved about _La statue_ in particular. I wrote about Reyer here: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Sep/Reyer_article.htm
Reyer also composed _Le Sélam_, a symphonie orientale, based on a decade living in North Africa. Félicien David's _Désert _draws on his voyage to Egypt and Palestine. (I'm less impressed by David's _Herculanum_, a mixture of half-a-dozen previous operas.)

Jules Massenet is today known largely for _Werther _and _Manon_, two of his less interesting works, and the Meditation from _Thaïs_. Massenet's versatility is astonishing; he composed grand opéras full of historical pageantry and exotic local colour; austere neo-Classical opera in the tradition of Gluck; Rabelaisian haulte farce; intimate, psychologically acute bourgeois tragedies; mediaeval dramas of Wagnerian scale; intensely dramatic verismo operas; and delicately melancholy fairy tales. He also wrote oratorios, ballets, religious music, music for the stage, symphonic suites, concertos, mélodies, and music for piano or organ. His best operas include: _Esclarmonde _(1889); _Thaïs _(1894); _Cendrillon _(1899); _Grisélidis _(1901); _Le jongleur de Notre-Dame _(1902); _Chérubin _(1905), after Mozart; _Ariane _(1906), Greek tragedy; _Don Quichotte _(1910); and _Roma _(1912), Classical tragedy. The realist operas _La navarraise _and _Thérèse_, and his _Amadis _are also excellent.
Here's my article on Massenet: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Aug/Massenet_article.pdf (43 pages!)

Saint-Saëns is best known for the Carnaval des animaux, the opera _Samson et Dalila _(particularly "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix"), and the Organ Symphony. _Henry VIII _and _Ascanio_ are arguably stronger operas than _Samson_, good as it is; most of his other operas are uninspired.

Also from this period: Lalo's _Roi d'Ys_, a Wagnerian opera about a flooded city, with a well-known (_Tannhäuser_-ish) overture.

And since you like Fauré, here's his opera _Pénélope_.

Moving into the 20th century...

Since you like Debussy, Ravel, and Koechlin, you might like to try Dukas, Cras, Ropartz, Bruneau, and Magnard. Poulenc's _Dialogues des Carmélites _is probably France's greatest 20th-century opera after _Pelléas_.

I'm still investigating composers like Monsigny, Philidor, Isouard, Méhul, Adam, Hervé (not to be confused with Hergé), Chabrier, Chausson, Charpentier, Messager, Milhaud, and Messiaen. I recommend Vincent Giroud's _French Opera: A Short History _(2010).


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## manyene (Feb 7, 2015)

So far Poulenc I think has been mentioned only once by someone who declared himself not yet into his music. Part of his problem is the way that so many have dismissed him as a rather glib and superficial composer who entertained rather than enlightened. You can see this in the many hostile reviews of his Voix Humaine, dismissed as the maunderings of a discarded lover. There is nevertheless a serious thread running through his works - in the Gloria, one of his masterpieces, especially. He was also a brilliant orchestrator - his Organ Concerto, my favourite Poulenc work, and the various keyboard concertos.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Not really mainstream, so hope I you like it 
Louise Farrenc - Nonet in E-flat major, Op.38 (1849)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Farrenc


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Vincent d'Indy. I derive enormous Big Smile pleasure from his Symphony on a French Mountain Air. Robustly cheerful music.

Germaine Tailleferre: Her Concertino for Harp and Orchestra is lovely. A friend of Ravel and a member of The Six.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

flamencosketches said:


> Going to create a kind of general purpose thread here. Lately I've been pretty obsessed with French music, and I'm looking to go beyond the mainstays Ravel and Debussy. I know there are dozens if not hundreds, thousands of great French composers out there and I would like to gain more exposure to some of them.
> 
> What are some of our favorite works by the French?
> 
> ...


I was listening to this yesterday.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

I have a special fondness for Poulenc, Milhaud, Francaix, Ibert....they produced some outstanding chamber music for woodwinds...larger works are very excellent, as well...


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

No mention of the great French composers for organ. They certainly had a knack for writing for that instrument. After the horror of Notre Dame burning, I've been listening to some of my favorites. The complete organ symphonies of Widor and Vierne started the listening. Then the complete organ works by Franck and some by Tournemire. My wife thinks I've turned the house into the Phantom of the Opera.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Heck148 said:


> I have a special fondness for Poulenc, Milhaud, Francaix, Ibert....they produced some outstanding chamber music for woodwinds...larger works are very excellent, as well...


Second the Poulenc woodwind chamber music in particular. I know fewer of the others.

And don't forget Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time."


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Beyond Debussy and Ravel, my favourite French composers have to be Francis Poulenc, Alberic Magnard, and Olivier Messiaen.

A far as I am concerned, Magnard wrote the single finest Symphony ever to come out of France, his Fourth is an absolute masterpiece, and his Third runs it close.






Poulenc is a weird and thankfully happy mixture of the religious and the profane. Who cannot be uplifted, in whatever way you want, by the Gloria. Dozens of other works, orchestral, Concertos, chamber, opera, songs to be heard too!






Messiaen is a tough nut to crack, beyond his famous Turangalila Symphony, and the Quartet for the end of time, he's intensely inner, even if you do not share his religious convictions.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

I love *Massenet* and continue to find a good number of this operas very enjoyable (esp. Esclarmonde, Herodiade, Therese, Cendrillon). I love Le Carillon.

*Florent Schmitt*, however, continues to fascinate me. He can be uneven (his piano music, for instance), but his ideas still have some hold on me. His Anthony et Cleopatra is quite underrated, and the slow movement of his so-called Symphony no. II is masterful.


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## infracave (May 14, 2019)

I'd recommend checking out Duruflé's requiem.
It's a beautiful office set for an organ + voices SATB, based on traditional plain chants.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> The first great French composer is Jean-Philippe Rameau


What about Leonin and Perotin?

Some others not mentioned


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## Guest (May 14, 2019)

the French and the Germans are the greatest composers of classical music up to now ; you ask about French music; there are about 10 top classical composers from centuries past (Lully, Rameau, Couperin L &F, Berlioz, Alkan, Bizet, Franck, Faure, Saint-Saens, Debussy, Ravel); there are about 100 since then, the early 20 th century gave us great composers like Boulanger, Iolas, Ohanna, Satie, Roussel, Koechlin, Dupont, d'Indy, Milhaud, Poulenc, after that you have a real explosion of talent: Messiaen, P.Henry, Boulez, Boucourechliev, Grisey, Murail, Dufourt, Pecou, Escaich, Greif, Manoury, Dufourt, Asperghis, Tanguy, Mantovani, Connesson, Dusapin, Dalbavie, Beffa


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

In general, nineteenth century French ballet music is dreadfully sleep inducing, but there is some worthwhile stuff in Delibes' Sylvia and Coppelia and some in Lalo's Namouna.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Fantasie for Flute and Piano by Gabriel Faure


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> The first great French composer is Jean-Philippe Rameau. (Yes, there are people like Marais, Campra, Charpentier, Montéclair before him.)


Hmm...I can't say I agree Rameau was the first great French composer, and I think you are over looking some important ones in your 'before him' group too.

Such as:

Machaut





Lully


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Some good suggestions in this thread. Poulenc in particular I second, and F Couperin and Messiaen...also you might want to check out:

Langlais


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Messiaen's organ works
Poulenc organ concerto, piano concerto
Varese, I enjoy his entire small body of work.
Dutilleux - violin concerto, piano sonata, Les citations, Mystere De L' Instant
Pretty much everything by Ravel and Debussy
Boulez - In Memoriam Bruno Maderna, and a few other pieces
I haven't delved too heavily in the Spectral school but I've heard a few things by Grisey, and Murail that sounded pretty interesting.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Vivent Les Six!
This thread is a timely reminder of how much fine music came out of France from Alkan to Ravel. 
Do we include Cesar Franck as French by adoption? He was born elsewhere, in Liege, but was very much part of the Parisian music scene.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Pat Fairlea said:


> He was born elsewhere... but was very much part of the Parisian music scene.


Speaking of this there were a lot of excellent non French composers studying in Paris in the early 20th century, therefore absorbing some of the sound.

A couple works I would recommend in this vein are Albeniz - _Iberia_, and Falla - _Nights in the Gardens of Spain_. Stravinsky also falls into this category.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Darius Milhaud's *Concerto for Percussion and Small Orchestra*; Stokwoski has 2 good recordings, neither in very good sound. Evelyn Glennie has one in much better sound.

Jacques Ibert is a treasure trove of great music. Try *Escales*, *Suite Symphonique Paris*, *Divertissement* and *Symphonie Concertante for Oboe and Strings*, not to mention the adorable miniature *Tres pieces breves*. I have favorite recordings but would suggest no one get too hung up on whose doing the playing -- just hear them.

Berlioz's *Les nuits d'ete* from Katarina Karneus on a CD with Berlioz overtures *Le Corsair*, *Roman Carnival *and *Le roi Lear* plus the *Hungarian march* from The Damnaiton of Faust.

Berlioz's *Fantastic Symphony* from Paul Paray and his viola concerto, *Harold In Italy*, from Donald McInnes and Bernstein.

Ravel's *Daphnis and Chloe*, preferably Suite 2, and *Alborada del gracioso*. Again, most competent conductors can do them well. Stokowski is magical in both.

Not by a Frenchman but Gershwin's *An American In Paris* is, like Ibert's *Suite Paris*, a wonderful soundview of the city.

Ansermet's recording of St. Saens *"Organ" Symphony No. 3*, especially linked to *Franck's D minor symphony*, is one of the conductor's greatest recordings.

I love St. Saens *Violin Concerto No. 3*, especially done by Alfredo Campoli.

Like many others I enjoy Poulenc's *Organ and Timpani concerto*; I also enjoy Pierre Petit's *Concertino for Organ, Strings and Percussion*. Raymond Leppard conducts it on an album with a splendid recording of Samuel Barber's *Toccata Festiva* for organ.

Suites from Delibes' ballets *Sylvia* and *Coppelia* have tremendous appeal as concert music and make a nice coupling.

I would assume the "French" Russians, Stravinsky and Prokofiev, are excluded from this discussion? The former's *Jeu de Cartes* and *Les Noces *are more French than international in spirit as is the latter's *Fourth Symphony*.

I understand Debussy was omitted but it would be foolhardy to dismiss his ballets -- *Jeux*, *Khamma* and Caplet's orchestration of *La Boite a joujoux* that Lan Shui conducted together on a CD a couple years back.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I have barely seen mention of Grisey yet. His Les Espaces Acoustiques and Quatre Chants pour Franchir le Seuil are among his works that I have enjoyed a lot. Also, Murail's Le Désenchantement du Monde (a piano concerto) and Dusapin's Aufgang (a violin concerto) and Solos (for Orchestra). There are many more very worthwhile works by these composers and by Dutilleux (who has been mentioned). And then there is Gounod - I have always enjoyed his Messe Solennelle de Sainte Cécile (or, at least, the Markevitch recording of it). And there are many pre-Baroque French composers of significance.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

I'm excited to notice that there is a new Louis Couperin disk, featuring pianist Pavel Kolesnikov, available. It will be nice to have an alternative to my trusty old Leonhardt version--one of my favorite composers.

I hope it stands with my Rameau/Meyer and F. Couperin/Tharaud disks of French Baroque music on piano.


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## sonance (Aug 20, 2018)

Olivier Greif has already been mentioned. My favourite works are his "Sonate de Requiem" and his "Sonate de Guerre" (though there are many more works I'm really fond of).











André Caplet and his "Conte fantastique" definitely deserves to be mentioned. (My recording is with Musique Oblique/Alice Ader on harmonia mundi, which can be heard via YouTube. But the pic is terrible, so I chose another performance.)


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

I would think César Franck counts as French (even though he was born in Belgium). I love his one and only symphony. Its very French sounding (three movements, emphasis on wind instruments, rich tone colors, less angular melodies, etc.)


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