Samuel Barber's Toccata Festiva was commissioned by Mary Curtis Bok Zimbalist, a wealthy Philadelphia philanthropist and founder of the Curtis Institute of Music, for the opening of a new organ.
Composition History
Poulenc's Organ Concerto was commissioned by Princesse Edmond de Polignac, an heiress of the Singer sewing-machine fortune and a significant artistic patron.
Composer Biography
Samuel Barber, an American composer, was earning $100 a month as a church organist by the age of twelve, despite being sacked before the year was out.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Poulenc described his Organ Concerto as being 'on the fringe of my religious music' and it explores a musical vocabulary that influenced his later sacred works.
Composition History
Francis Poulenc's Organ Concerto is the only work of its kind to have established a place in the standard concert repertoire in the 250 years since Handel's death.
Notable Performances
The first private performance of Poulenc's Organ Concerto took place in Princesse de Polignac's salon on December 16, 1938, with Maurice Duruflé at the organ and Nadia Boulanger conducting.
Composer Biography
Francis Poulenc, a French composer, was almost unique among successful French composers in having no formal conservatoire training.
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