Durey: Epigrammes de Théocrite

Day 72

Louis Durey: Epigrammes de Théocrite

François le Roux

Graham Johnson

Durey is always the name that people struggle to remember when asked to name the members of Les Six. He drifted away from the rest of the group fairly early and ploughed a lonely furlough as a member of the communist party who wrote songs for workers choirs. Indeed one on-line biography of his is headed 'the man who set Mao to music!'.

This brief cycle of four songs dates from 1918, even before the group was labeled Les Six. I found them rather charming. They inhabit the same musical world as the early works of Poulenc though in fact they were written before Poulenc had written anything of significance (he was at least 10 years older than his younger colleague). Durey himself acknowledged that the key influence was Satie, and there is certainly some of that composer's simplicity and characteristic quirkiness in these piece.

Whether Durey would be remembered at all had it not been for the fleeting time when he was brought together almost accidentally to be part of Les Six is open to question. But I am glad to have heard at least some of his music. I can't find any recordings of his setting of Mao or Ho Chi Min, so I have no idea whether or not they have any musical merit. But there are plenty of other songs on this recital disc - part of the invaluable Hyperion song edition - and I will explore some of those later.