about this recording:
Henri Sauguet (1901-1989), whose real name was Henri Poupart, was born in Bordeaux and studied composition under Joseph Canteloube and Charles Koechlin, amongst others. He became a proficient organist and pianist earlyon in life. For his musical career, he took his mother’s maiden name. Following the example of Les Six (Louis Durey, Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre), he founded, still in Bordeaux, Les Trois, together with the composer Jean-Marcel Lizotte and the poet Louis Émié. He came in contact with Darius Milhaud, to whom he sent his first compositions. Milhaud, impressed by his talent, urged him to move to Paris, which Sauguet did in 1922.

The second cycle “Mouvements du Cœur” was also created at the suggestion of Doda Conrad, who wanted to commemorate the centenary of the death of his fellow countryman, Frédéric Chopin. Conrad approached the writer and poetess Louise de Vilmorin (1902-1969), already a tried and renowned supplier of song-texts for Francis Poulenc. He envisaged a “Tombeau” in the form of an instrumental baroque suite, replacing the dance-movements with forms used by Chopin, such as: prélude, valse, ballade etc. Conrad secured the willingness of some of his composer-acquaintances to participate in this venture (Poulenc, Auric, Françaix,  Milhaud, Preger und Sauguet).

reviews: