•  France 1963

Translation with the help of José Peñaloza:

SALUT LES COPAINS (FRANCE) 1963

    Frank Pourcel - The Enchanter

    by Claude Obernal - Page 2

Franck Pourcel's grand orchestra in full during its last series of recordings.
Photo Claude Poirier.

"Making orchestral arrangements is fascinating work."
Photo Interpress.

- Because you can't, I think, do two different things well and you have to choose.

I chose recording ... Which also presupposes another preparatory work, this one: the arrangements. I find it fascinating because it involves a considerable amount of imagination. But once worked out, an arrangement may turn out to be very different from what I anticipated. And it is always in the studios when recording that I notice it....

While speaking, Franck Pourcel glances towards the sky of Paris. A sky full of clouds, a rainy sky. Obviously, his thoughts travel to other horizons. Marseilles?

Yes, it is Marseilles that he sees again, adding to it the memory of the holidays which are still very near. He never stopped missing his native sun. There, he has friends who are called Pagnol, Fernandel, and with whom, of course, while tasting the pastis, he talks about "profession" ...

- How do you manage to forget about music three weeks a year?

- But I don't forget, even on vacation, I don't even have another Ingres violin. I like cars, fishing. I try to do nothing, which is even better, but all that doesn't stop me from thinking about the next recording to be prepared. A recording which, like the previous ones and those to come, will make the hearts of millions of people vibrate, in Paris as well as in Stockholm or Tokyo.

"Why don't you come and make records with us?" Asked to Franck Pourcel, a gentleman met by chance and who lives in a small town in Venezuela. And who added: "With us, everyone knows you!"

- On the other hand, said Pourcel, laughing, I can walk around perfectly incognito, even in Paris. They know my records much better than myself ... Because if he's a quiet man in the variety world, it's him, and he never felt the necessity to be the star.

What mattered to him was to achieve success in parallel with his career and his private life. His happiness? A life without history between a charming woman and a girl, Marie-Françoise, who is an excellent pianist.

- But it all ends there, said Franck Pourcel, currently she is studying and has never expressed the desire to become a professional musician.

- She doesn't seem unhappy at all?

- If her vocation had been peremptory, I would not have discouraged her, of course. And I would not have spared her the advice. But I am also in a good position to know all the difficulties she would have encountered in this profession.

C. O.

Next week :
TIPPI HEDREN,
THE LATEST DISCOVERY OF A. HITCHCOCK

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