Jean Françaix

Jean Françaix was composing as a child in Le Mans, where his father directed the conservatoire and his mother taught singing, and the early pieces took him to Nadia Boulanger. The Concertino for piano and orchestra brought international notice; what followed was a very large output — concertos, ballets, operas, orchestral scores, film music, and chamber music for wind instruments, including the First Wind Quintet, the Clarinet Concerto, the Tema con variazioni, L'Heure du berger. He often played his own piano parts. He took his Paris Conservatoire diploma in Isidor Philipp's piano class in 1930, and Schott dates the Concertino's premiere to 13 February 1934 in Paris, with the composer at the piano and Nadia Boulanger conducting; Ravel had already spoken well of his work as a boy in 1923. Ballets for Léonide Massine followed in 1933 and Le Roi nu for Serge Lifar two years later, the opera Le diable boiteux in 1938 under Nadia Boulanger, and the oratorio L'Apocalypse selon Saint Jean, written in 1939, was first heard under Charles Munch in occupied Paris in 1942. He played in duo with the cellist Maurice Gendron and joined Poulenc in his Two-Piano Concerto, and in 1969 he orchestrated the complete Chopin preludes. He also performed the Concertino at Baden-Baden in 1936.