free form … I could have called it an interlude ("intermède") or a romance". Presto giocoso This movement (♩=160–168) is predominantly extrovert and fast; the beat is a strongly marked . The shape is roughly that of a rondo with choruses and verses, but Poulenc treats the form freely. In Mellers's phrase, "The flute flickers, the piano bounces, in a helter skelter gallop". The fast music culminates in a long trill on high G, followed by a brief silence from which there comes, unexpectedly, a quotation from the dotted rhythm "mélancolique" theme of the first movement's middle section, in its original key of F sharp minor. The music gathers speed again and the sonata sprints to a double fortissimo finish, "strictement en mesure sans ralentir" ("strictly in time without any slowing down"). The finale is sometimes compared to the exuberant finales of Poulenc's early chamber works, particularly the Trio (1926), but the Poulenc scholar Claude Caré finds more in common between this movement and the Concert champêtre (1927–28). The composer is reported to have said that the movement should be played as quickly as possible because "it isn't any good" (he probably would have liked more time to work on it) but others have found it "masterly" and "a perfect conclusion". Later concert performances and recordings Poulenc considered giving the American premiere together with Rampal during a planned US tour, but the tour did not take place and Rampal gave the American premiere in February 1958 with his regular accompanist Robert Veyron-Lacroix. Poulenc was pleased to accompany other flautists in the sonata. In January 1959 he accompanied Gareth Morris in the British premiere, in an all-Poulenc programme that included the world premiere of his Élégie in memory of Dennis Brain for horn and piano. Later in that year Poulenc played the piano part with Maxence Larrieu in Avignon, Rampal in Paris and Christian Lardé in Menton. in 2015, the pianist and scholar David Owen Norris called the sonata "probably the world's most played piece for flute and piano". Recordings The American premiere was recorded, as was the composer's Paris performance with Rampal. There have been many subsequent recordings of the sonata. Among the earlier ones are those by Michel Debost with Jacques Fevrier and Rampal with Veyron-Lacroix. Later recordings include those by Julius Baker with Lisa Logan and Mathieu Dufour with Éric Le Sage. Among recordings singled out in a