ABSTRACT
Poulenc gave this interview on his return from a month in Great Britain. His cantata Figure humaine had been given its world first performance, in English, by the BBC Chorus, conducted by Leslie Woodgate. With Pierre Bernac, who had accompanied him on his first tour of Britain in 1938, the composer also gave recitals, including ones in Birmingham on 14 March, in London on 22 March, under the auspices of the ISCM, and at the Wigmore Hall on 27 March. Poulenc and Bernac had also made recordings in the Abbey Road studios (notably of Schumann’s Dichterliebe), as they were to do again in December 1945, June 1946, March and December 1947 and May 1950.
