Albert Roussel - A Sadly Neglected French Composer.

[DavidW]

I think he too often gets overlooked by listeners who are into Debussy and Ravel.

*cough* Karl *cough*   No I get you, I've overlooked him for far too long, and I am into Debussy and Ravel, guess that applies to me.  But not any longer.

[Mirror Image]

*cough* Karl *cough*   No I get you, I've overlooked him for far too long, and I am into Debussy and Ravel, guess that applies to me.  But not any longer.

Well this is good, David. What recordings of Roussel do you own? Do you own the Deneve recordings on Naxos? These have proven to be quite excellent to me so far. The only one I haven't listened to yet is the last, and final, release which contains the fourth symphony.

[DavidW]

I have the Deneve recording that has symphony #3 and a ballet.  Great music.

[Mirror Image]

I have the Deneve recording that has symphony #3 and a ballet.  Great music.

Yes, well know you should collect the other three discs. You can buy them cheap as hell from an Amazon Marketplace seller.

[DavidW]

Yeah I think I'll buy the box set and either sell or give away the isolated cd that I have.  Roussel is my favorite discovery of the month, I like that cd more than any other one I bought.

[Scarpia]

*cough* Karl *cough*   No I get you, I've overlooked him for far too long, and I am into Debussy and Ravel, guess that applies to me.  But not any longer.

I don't see Roussel as being as closely resembling Debussy or Ravel, except they were all French of course.  His thinking is more on the symphonic side, sort of the antithesis of the Debussy/Ravel aesthetic, in my mind he is related to Honegger, d'Indy, perhaps Magnard. 

I have his symphonies from Dutoit on Erato and Janowski on RCA, the latter is particularly good, and a few recordings of Bacchus et Ariane, but I see that the Naxos series has several smaller pieces for orchestra that I am missing.  I have to do some research into those (amazon research, of course).

Just noticed this recent release


Ansermet was one of Roussel's early champions, and his performances are interesting.  Looking again, every piece on that disc is awesome (the Dukas La Peri is a miracle and Chausson's symphony is also a superb piece) and maybe I will get it.  I think I have those recordings, but in a very early (mid 80's) release during the dark ages of digital remastering.

[not edward]

I don't see Roussel as being as closely resembling Debussy or Ravel, except they were all French of course.  His thinking is more on the symphonic side, sort of the antithesis of the Debussy/Ravel aesthetic, in my mind he is related to Honegger, d'Indy, perhaps Magnard. 

I have his symphonies from Dutoit on Erato and Janowski on RCA, the latter is particularly good, and a few recordings of Bacchus et Ariane, but I see that the Naxos series has several smaller pieces for orchestra that I am missing.  I have to do some research into those (amazon research, of course).

I'd agree that Roussel is in a rather different place from Debussy/Ravel--the taut neoclassical side of his music is a long way from them and likely what encouraged Martinu to study with him.

For the symphonies (except number 1) I think the EMI two-fer is an excellent bargain pairing; to my mind consistently superior to the Naxos recordings:

[asin]B000HWZAR4[/asin]

Cluytens is as good as you'd expect in 3 and 4, and has better sound and playing than the various (excellent interpretatively, often wonky in execution) Munch recordings I've heard. Pierre Dervaux also makes a good impression in the 2nd--I think this is the only recording of him I have. I'm also rather partial to some of the ballet recordings on Erato with Martinon conducting.

For the concerti(ni), the collection with Tharaud in the piano concerto and Queyras in the cello concertino has given me much enjoyment--it only seems now to be available in a 2fer with Hahn chamber music:

[asin]B002NVLXF0[/asin]

[Scarpia]

For the concerti(ni), the collection with Tharaud in the piano concerto and Queyras in the cello concertino has given me much enjoyment--it only seems now to be available in a 2fer with Hahn chamber music:

[asin]B002NVLXF0[/asin]

Ooooh, that looks nice.  The concerti are the only pieces mentioned here that I don't have recordings of.  Worth noting, the Ballet recordings on the EMI 2-fer are by Pretre, a favorite conductor of mine whose recordings always have a French flair and satisfy.

[SonicMan46]

Does anyone have the brilliant set of his chamber works?  It looks tempting.

David - yes, I own the Brilliant set of his Chamber Works (posted back on pg. 2 in 2008!) - enjoyed but probably have not listened to the recording since that time, so cannot make any specific comments @ the moment; the price is certainly right for the 3-CD set; some decent Amazonian reviews that are more than the typical short comments (4+/5* overall rating) & excellent review on MusicWeb - seems like the best compilation at present - Dave 

[DavidW]

Thanks Dave for the info and the link to the review.

[Mirror Image]

I don't see Roussel as being as closely resembling Debussy or Ravel, except they were all French of course.  His thinking is more on the symphonic side, sort of the antithesis of the Debussy/Ravel aesthetic, in my mind he is related to Honegger, d'Indy, perhaps Magnard.

I think you're failing to remember that Roussel started off very much influenced by Debussy's Impressionism. Go listen to Symphony No. 1 and tell me you don't hear traces of Debussy in it.

I agree, though, that later Roussel doesn't resemble many French composers at all as his style turned more hard-edged with a Neoclassical slant.

[Scarpia]

I think you're failing to remember that Roussel started off very much influenced by Debussy's Impressionism. Go listen to Symphony No. 1 and tell me you don't hear traces of Debussy in it.

I tend to regard Roussel's first symphony as an early work, before he had found his own individual voice as a composer. 

[Mirror Image]

I tend to regard Roussel's first symphony as an early work, before he had found his own individual voice as a composer.

It still doesn't change the fact that his music was influenced by Impressionism.

[Scarpia]

It still doesn't change the fact that his music was influenced by Impressionism.

I don't disagree with the statement that he was influenced by impressionism in his early works.  But in his mature style I find those influences to be absent, and his works exhibit much greater formal precision and rhythmic force than those of Debussy typically do.

[Scarpia]

Edward reminded me that I have this CD

[asin]B000060K9K[/asin]

which has the same Cluytens recordings as the EMI 2-fer he mentioned.  Listened to the symphony No 4 today.  A really stylish performance and sound is quite good, better than I recall for typical EMI France recordings, perhaps Testament has done a better job in the remastering than EMI normally does.

In any case, a little neoclassical gem, and the French manner of brass playing, a bit brighter and more jaunty than you would normally hear from a German orchestra (with that characteristic vibrato in the trumpets), definitely helps punch it up.  The slow movement, with some impressive climaxes with strings supported by exposed brass lines, is the high point of this performance.

[Scarpia]

Listening to more music by the Sadly Neglected French composer, again from the collection I reference above, with Cluytens and the Paris Conservatory.  This time the Sinfonietta for strings.  Just a wonderful, vigorous piece, far from impressionism to my ears.  Brings to mind some works of Honegger (with more wit and less angst) or Frank Martin.  The two outer movements are very high energy music, with snappy rhythms and angular melodies.  The slow movement is again the emotional center of the work, intense without being sentimental, full of thorny harmonies.  I have always liked Roussel but this Cluytens set is really bring the music to life for me.

[eyeresist]

I have the Deneve recording that has symphony #3 and a ballet.  Great music.

You have the best disc of the set, i.e. it's all downhill from here

[DavidW]

Dave, I've added the Roussel chamber set to my bro cart.

[Scarpia]

Listening to sad-sac Roussel, the sadly neglected composer.  (Can nothing be done about this idiotic thread title?)  I've started at the last symphony and worked forward through Dutoit's cycle.  I remember thinking these recordings were lackluster the first time through but I am finding them very nicely done, in an understated way, this time. 

The forth and third have a distinctly neo-classical flair, to my ear (close to Stravinsky's two instrumental symphonies in their general manner).  The second symphony is another matter altogether.  A larger, more sprawling work, I'm finding it a bit more challenging to grasp the overall argument of the work.  It is in three movements but it is hard to define the scheme.  It is not the traditional "fast-slow-fast" scheme for three movement works, each movement seems to be a thing unto itself.  The first movement starts with a soft, slow theme, there is a climax which leads to some fast, extroverted music with brilliant writing for horns, then a slow theme takes over (seemingly not closely related to the opening slow theme) then it gets more vigorous.  The second and third movements develop in a similar way, tempos shifting from very slow to very fast, mood shifting from gentle to extroverted and back again.   There is a lot of music here that is beautiful and fascinates me, but I am not grasping how the different passages relate to each other, and what the overall "symphonic" logic is.  If you had played it for me without telling me what it was I probably would have guessed that I was listening to a suite from a ballet.

[snyprrr]

Listening to sad-sac Roussel, the sadly neglected composer.  (Can nothing be done about this idiotic thread title?)  I've started at the last symphony and worked forward through Dutoit's cycle.  I remember thinking these recordings were lackluster the first time through but I am finding them very nicely done, in an understated way, this time. 

The forth and third have a distinctly neo-classical flair, to my ear (close to Stravinsky's two instrumental symphonies in their general manner).  The second symphony is another matter altogether.  A larger, more sprawling work, I'm finding it a bit more challenging to grasp the overall argument of the work.  It is in three movements but it is hard to define the scheme.  It is not the traditional "fast-slow-fast" scheme for three movement works, each movement seems to be a thing unto itself.  The first movement starts with a soft, slow theme, there is a climax which leads to some fast, extroverted music with brilliant writing for horns, then a slow theme takes over (seemingly not closely related to the opening slow theme) then it gets more vigorous.  The second and third movements develop in a similar way, tempos shifting from very slow to very fast, mood shifting from gentle to extroverted and back again.   There is a lot of music here that is beautiful and fascinates me, but I am not grasping how the different passages relate to each other, and what the overall "symphonic" logic is.  If you had played it for me without telling me what it was I probably would have guessed that I was listening to a suite from a ballet.

Isn't No.2 supposed to be a Post-Impressionistic type work?,... Baudelairean? purfumed,...is it ArtNuevauioi? early Respighi, early Malipiero,... @1905-07, they were all writing sprawling stuff?