After the liberation of Paris, the concerts featured several of the greatest French composers and performers of the time such as Francis Poulenc, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Bernac, Gérard Souzay, Ginette Neveu, Pierre Fournier, Maurice Gendron, Monique Haas and Yvonne Loriod. They were organized by Tony Mayer (for the Free French and, later, at the French Embassy) and by Felix Aprahamian, whose deep knowledge of French music and whose contacts with London musicians enabled him to arrange marvellous programmes, performed by musicians such as Maggie Teyte, Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, Michael Tippett, Reginald Goodall and the Griller String Quartet. In 1942 General de Gaulle and the Free French start to sponsor a series of 'Concerts de musique française' at the Wigmore Hall. Plans for a Festival of English and French Music had to be abandoned as a result of the Fall of France, but the planning was an ambitious instance of musical entente cordiale which is explored in the first part of this study.
French music was much encouraged by British concert promoters in London during World War Two.
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