Poulenc/Sondheim at NYFOS, Apr 7 2026
- ladiesvoices
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
I heard a program of Poulenc and Sondheim at the New York Festival of Song on April 7, 2026. I had heard maybe only one or two concerts by NYFOS - - they're on my radar but not at the front of my mind. Alex Ross wrote a rave in The New Yorker of a recent concert of theirs and I decided to check out what else they were doing this season. Turns out they were doing a concert of songs by Francis Poulenc and Stephen Sondheim. Totally my jam.
You probably know Stephen Sondheim - - the lyricist for West Side Story and Gypsy and composer and lyricist for a whole host of amazing Broadway shows: Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Passion, Into the Woods, quite a few more. My favorite Sondheim song today (it'll probably be a different song tomorrow) is this acerbic number from Follies. Its content is absolutely scathing but it's set as a breezy waltz:
You might not know Francis Poulenc - - he's one of my favorite composers, his tart harmonies are unlike anyone else's, you can hear a piece of his and instantly know it's his. He's especially admired for his art songs. He had three things I think are essential to write a great song for voice and piano: he had an innate knowledge of what feels good and sounds impressive for a singer, he wrote piano music that's expressive and falls beautifully into the hands, and he knew how to take a poem and deliver not just the words but the meaning, the underlying emotional content of the poem.
His melodies might not exactly be hummable but they stick in the brain and find a welcome home there. The program for this concert was announced a week before and I had "C'est ainsi que tu es" stuck in my head for that week. This is my favorite recording:
Steven Blier is the artistic director of NYFOS. He's an exceptional pianist, he and Bénédicte Jourdois split the songs between them. The singers were soprano Christine Taylor Price and baritone Theo Hoffman. All four of them chose the songs together (I imagine Blier had the final word, as is his right).
Blier wrote the program notes. He said that Poulenc and Sondheim both have an urbane, sophisticated, big-city aura to their music - - Poulenc was Paris and Sondheim was New York City. They both have a balance of intellect and sensuality. I'd say the seesaw tips more in the direction of sensuality for Poulenc, more on the side of intellect for Sondheim. The concert was a masterpiece of programming, each composer enriched by being placed next to the other. Clearly (for me) Poulenc was superior but Sondheim held his own.
I've listed the full program below with notes about who performed what. The first song, "What More Do I Need?" was a bit concerning to me. It sat a little low in Taylor Price's voice and the piano part was quite busy and dense, it covered her voice much of the time. Taylor Price was a little too charade-y in her use of gesture - - the lyric "an inch of sky and a fly or two" had her indicating an inch with her thumb and forefinger and she pointed out the two invisible flies. Thankfully this was the only song that had her doing that.
The next song, "Montparnasse," was amazing. Hoffman has the perfect voice for Poulenc: warm and rich, strong throughout its range (and some of those songs are a stretch), with a lovely arch at the top. He and Taylor Price both had delicious French but maybe Hoffman's was a little more flavorful and idiomatic.
This song has a magical postlude. Schumann cornered the market on postludes in art songs but his are often spooky, not in a good way. Poulenc has a way of wrapping things up and adding to the impact of the song with the postlude. Here's a recording by Poulenc himself and his performing partner Pierre Bernac:
This song had me in tears for such a selfish reason - - I was known for my way with French songs back in the day, Poulenc in particular, and I wept because I wish it had been ME singing it!
More tears for "With So Little To Be Sure Of." I don't know this song (duet, actually) and the turning point, "We had a moment," totally hit me. It's set up beautifully with a brief pause. It happens at about 1:58 in this recording but listen to it up to that point to get the full impact.
Anyone who says that Sondheim is all brain and no heart needs to listen to this song.
I was curious to hear a young woman with a sunny voice sing "The Ladies Who Lunch." It works, Taylor Price sang it on her terms and it was a hit. The words came across better than in the first song because the piano texture was less dense. Plus I suppose it helps that I know every word of this song...
Blier had a few moments of spoken remarks, augmenting on his program notes. The song "Fancy" had a peculiar genesis - - a patron of the arts commissioned Poulenc, the English composer Benjamin Britten, and the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály to each do a setting of an excerpt from The Merchant of Venice. The Poulenc was a charming little song, Poulenc's only song in English. They followed this up with Sondheim's only Shakespeare setting, "Fear No More," on a text from Cymbeline, written as part of The Frogs. Can I say that I'm tired of hearing about how this show was written to be performed in the Yale swimming pool with students Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver in the cast? There, I've said it.
Taylor Price did her best singing of the night in the "Air champêtre." It sat higher in her voice, in her sweet spot. I wasn't familiar with the Sondheim song after that, "That'll Show Him" from Forum. It was a delightful song, I wanted it to go on longer - - it needed a bridge and one more verse. Do I need to familiarize myself with Forum?
Hoffman did his best singing of the evening in the next pair, "Pablo Picasso" from the Poulenc song cycle Le travail du peintre and "Finishing the Hat" from Sondheim's Sunday in the Park With George. His voice rolled out of him in the Poulenc, a thrill to hear, and he was tender in the Sondheim with an expert approach to his high voice.
Blier was given credit as "arranger" - - I think that was for devising the extra little bits he played now and then when Jourdois was the primary pianist. I imagine he also wrote the connections between a few songs, a bit of music to bring you from one song to the next with no break. These were effective, they kept the ball in the air.
I've never warmed up to Into the Woods and really don't like the song "No One Is Alone," it's too repetitive for me. I know plenty of people who love the show and the song but I'm not one of them.
They did an encore, "Old Friends" from Merrily We Roll Along. They took it so fast, it was rather alarming.
FULL PROGRAM
CTP = Christine Taylor Price
TH = Theo Hoffman
SP = Steven Blier
BJ = Bénédicte Jourdois
BJ + SP = mostly Jourdois with smaller bits by Blier
"What More Do I Need" (from Saturday Night) — Stephen Sondheim (CTP, SB)
"Montparnasse," from Deux mélodies de Guillaume Apollinaire — Francis Poulenc (TH, SB)
"With So Little to Be Sure Of," from Anyone Can Whistle — Sondheim (CTP, TH, BJ + SB)
"C’est ainsi que tu es," from Métamorphoses — Poulenc (CTP, BJ)
"Chanson à boire," from Chansons gaillardes — Poulenc (TH, BJ)
"The Ladies Who Lunch," from Company — Sondheim (CTP, BJ)
"Live Alone and Like It," from Dick Tracy —Sondheim (TH, SB)
"Hôtel," from Banalités — Poulenc (CTP, BJ)
"Fancy" — Poulenc (CTP, SB)
"Fear no more," from The Frogs — Sondheim (TH, SB)
"Air champêtre," from Airs chantés — Poulenc (CTP, BJ)
"That’ll Show Him," from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum — Sondheim (CTP, BJ + SB)
"Pablo Picasso," from Le Travail du Peintre — Poulenc (TH, BJ)
"Finishing the Hat," from Sunday in the Park with George — Sondheim (TH, BJ)
"Colloque" — Poulenc (CTP, TH, BJ + SB)
"Move On," from Sunday in the Park with George — Sondheim (CTP, TH, BJ)
"Silly People," from A Little Night Music — Sondheim (CTP, SB + BJ)
"Nous avons fait la nuit," from Tel jour, telle nuit — Poulenc (TH, BJ)
Theme from Stavisky — Sondheim (SB and BJ)
"Le Disparu" — Poulenc (TH, BJ)
"No One Is Alone," from Into the Woods — Sondheim (CTP, TH, BJ + SB)
"Priez pour paix" — Poulenc (CTP, TH, BJ + SB)
Encore: "Old Friends" from Merrily We Roll Along — Sondheim (CTP, TH, BJ + SB)
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