Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra in D Minor

[Guest guest]

Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra in D Minor

(Poulenc)

A door slams open. Hordes of happy mice run out to play

into a Parisian Saturday night party.

Windows fly open and lovers hang out

drumming with bright expectancy.

Keystone cops are plodding through the galloping traffic.

Carousing jalopy’s weave along the boulevard.

blaring party hats into horns.

Arm in arm the strollers head for the fountain of youth

where a Spanish dancer fandangos for pennies.

By the river embankment

two sweethearts share the nostalgia

of saying their long good-byes with drawn out sighs

struck by the man in the moon once more.

A crowd races by whooping for glee tricks.

In the moonlit slow drift of the water,

the stars glow with sweet sorrow.

Tiny celestial beings waltz lightly upon the river

drifting past them on rippling rain drops of slow time.

With a whoosh, city slickers burst out of magic bubbles,

and rush to strut in the peacock shimmer of the night.

A startled crash of symbolic cymbals then silence.

Mozart is writing his love letters on an old French piano.

A larghetto for the lonely.

He watches the swirl of ballroom chandeliers

and drifts off on his classic boat ride

remembering his own dreams of love.

The dancers move silently

their bodies swaying to ghost rhythms in the night music.

There are white gowns and top hats,

but nothing is black or white here.

Mr. Poulenc has the other keyboard and interjects

with a Gaelic jazz fugue smiling in sympathy.

Little Wolfgang plays on and makes his last word count.

A crash of playful dustbin lids.

and the party moves outside again.

The parade resumes it pantomime

moving on with lilting footfalls;

buoyant in their graceful swagger,

they sing comic tunes for melancholy lovers.

Its busy again and the commerce of passing cars

toots and honks its sanguine ripostes.

Meanwhile the mice run up the clock

as they all elephant walk to the good times.

Heads bent close together, a few tender moments

as the river runs through the heart once more.

Suddenly, it all turns to glitter

the starlight shatters like a champagne lollipop

heavy on the pedal we all fall down.

love

eric

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