One of the many delights of today’s music is to experience the almost mercurial variety of mood, texture, tonality, and harmony changes in each of its three movements, seamlessly leading us from one new experience to another.

The work begins with a flourish and exhilarating drive, announcing that a virtuoso work is at hand. The wind theme immediately following appears in several guises through the movement; even the ballad-like central section is derived from it. The second movement introduces flowing, almost languid melody, interrupted by a saucy section which is typical of Poulencian charm and wit. Two quite contrasting themes appear in the final movement, the first rhythmic and lively, the other lushly melodic. The work ends not in a dash to the finish line, but in an ascending cohesion of sound which seems to take the listener upward, to a vaulted, musical, cathedral arch.

In its variety, beauty, and even in its technical demands, this work must be a joy to play. It certainly is a joy to hear!

Francis Poulenc wrote the sextet in its original form in 1932, but would not allow its première (1940 in Paris) until he had made the extensive revisions in it he completed in 1939. He admitted to being uncomfortable for writing for strings (having destroyed two violin sonatas and a string quartet; the latter from as late as 1947), but today’s music, and the four other works he created for winds and piano, show the talent and affection he had for composing for those instruments.

Poulenc composed prolifically for the voice: more than 150 songs (from the most dramatic and devout to the most free-wheeling and joyous); a good deal of – mainly religious – choral music (including his unaccompanied Mass in G, and settings of Salve Regina and Gloria); and three operas (the most powerful of which is Dialogues des Carmélites, which Lyric Opera of Chicago presented a few seasons ago). There were almost 100 solo piano pieces (though Poulenc said he felt his best piano writing was in his songs), as well as music for the stage, chamber music, and orchestral pieces.

As a young composer, Poulenc came to particular note in France when the critic Henri Collet grouped him with five other like-minded French composers (Auric; Durey; Honegger; Milhaud; and Tailleferre) as “Les six.” Poulenc’s accomplishments eventually overshadowed those of the others.

Two events in 1935 had a profound effect on Poulenc, and on his music: the death of a friend in a car accident, and visiting Notre Dame de Rocamadour. As a result, he returned to Catholicism, the deeply religious tradition of his paternal family. The many religious works he composed sprang from that time.

It is common to speak of two very divergent aspects of Poulenc’s works as being particular hallmarks of his music: a neo-Stravinsky classicism, and a rousing French music hall sensibility. These elements are certainly to be found in some of his works, but always with an individual voice which leads one to realize the work at hand could have been written by no one else. His individuality, inspiration, and invention made him one of the most important composers of his time.