Les soirees de Nazelles, FP 84

Suite for piano composed 1930-1936, dedicated to the memory of the composer's aunt Virginie Lienard. The work consists of a Preambule, eight character variations each portraying a different friend who participated in improvised portrait evenings at the Vicomte de Noailles's house at Nazelles, a Cadence, and a Final. It is Poulenc's most extended solo piano work and one of the most intimate: each variation is a capsule study of a personality, and the whole piece breathes the warmth and wit of a social world that was soon to disappear.