Concerto pour deux pianos, FP 61

Concerto for two pianos and orchestra in D minor, composed summer 1932. Commissioned by Princess Edmond de Polignac, it was premiered in Venice in September 1932 with the composer and Jacques Fevrier as soloists. The work is famous for its central Larghetto, where Poulenc fuses the memory of Mozart with the hypnotic shimmer of Balinese gamelan music he had heard at the 1931 Colonial Exposition in Paris. The result is one of the most beautiful slow movements in the French concerto repertoire.

The two soloists must function as a single instrument with two players. Balance is critical: the secondary piano should not dominate even when it has the main line. In the Larghetto, cultivate an ethereal, sustained tone — the movement should seem to float. In the outer movements, rhythmic precision between the two pianos is as important as individual tonal quality.