Search - Roussel, Dutoit, Fno :: Roussel: Symphonies 1-4

Beware Of The "Complete Set" Syndrome

Jeffrey Lipscomb | Sacramento, CA United States | 05/12/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"To my mind, Albert Roussel (1869-1937) is the most under-appreciated symphonic genius of the 20th Century. Why that is so I cannot explain. Roussel's orchestral palette is unique and distinctive; once heard, his special sound cannot be mistaken for that of anyone else. I think part of the problem is performance-related: there really haven't been many great performances to hear. More to the point, none of the truly outstanding accounts are to be found in a "complete set," certainly not this rather pedestrian one from Charles Dutoit.



I decided recently to let this Dutoit set go - in terms of both playing and interpretation, it strikes me as decidedly second rate. Of course, nothing would please me more than to find a complete set of a composer's works with uniformly excellent performances, but with the possible exception of Leppard's Handel on Phillips and a few others, that almost never happens. Not that I "have it in" for Dutoit: I am also letting go of what is virtually the only "complete set" alternative - the Marek Janowski/Radio France collection on now deleted RCA CDs. The latter is, to my ears, distinctly preferable to Dutoit's - it's better played across the board and more richly recorded - but it suffers from an uninspired proficiency that became ever clearer as I made comparisons with various individual perofrmances.



Over the past year I have tried to hear the alternatives in each work, and I managed to audition about 90% of them. That wasn't as big an undertaking as you might suppose - there really aren't that many alternatives available, and "historic" performances are few and far between. You won't find recommended accounts here by conductors who tried out a work for a single season and then cranked out the obligatory record. So there is no over-done grandstanding from Bernstein, no faceless "crank out a sausage" from Jarvi, no homogenized juggernaut a la Karajan, and no over-analytical embalming courtesy of Boulez. What I want to share with you is a distinctive handful of really memorable readings from those few conductors who, to my taste, really come to grips with the demands of Roussel's music. Regrettably, several are on out of print CDs and one has never been transferred from LP. But then, who ever said that finding gold was easy?



1st Symphony: Leif Segerstam's reading with the Rhineland-Pfalz State Philharmonic (who would have known?) on Cybelia 801 simply crawls with atmospheric touches - it is stunning. What a nice surprise: I have never much cared for Segerstam's Mahler. With it is "Resurrection" (the first work for full orchestra, some 3 years before Roussel composed the 1st in 1906) and the late (1936) Rapsodie Flamande (Flemish Rhapsody), both in wonderful readings by Pierre Stoll, a conductor hitherto unknown to me.



2nd Symphony: My sole reason for getting Janowski's set was to hear this work in a better reading than Dutoit's. Like Prokofiev and his 2nd, Roussel's is arguably his most daring work. Its first decent stereo recording (1969!)was by Martinon with the Orchestre National de L'ORTF in a dazzling account - when Martinon was on, he was really ON. He was a composition pupil of Roussel and was trained by Munch - and it really shows. This is on Erato 2564 60577-2 and can be found in Europe. The coupling - a complete "Spider's Feast," also with Martinon, is quite simply THE greatest performance ever. How is it that Chicago failed to appreciate Martinon? After only 5 years he was replaced by (gulp!) Solti.



Symphony #3 & #4: These symphonies have both received a number of very fine performances. Munch left several - I think his best 3rd was the live 1967 account, available only in a very expensive Chicago Symphony set (that orchestra had already been "prepared" by Martinon). His studio recordings of 3 and 4 (1965)on Erato 2292-45678-2 are also very good (the live ones on Disques Montaigne have pretty rough sound). Perhaps the best 3 and 4 currently on CD is the fabulous 1965 Cluytens, with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra (helas! they no longer exist) on Testament SBT 1239. It is coupled with equally great Cluytens readings of the Sinfonietta for String Orchestra and the 2nd Suite from Bacchus et Ariane. Ernest Bour also left inspired live radio broadcasts of 3-4 with the SWS Stuttgart on Astree 7800 (one of two superb 4-disc collections of 20th Century masterpieces that should be in any serious collection of modern music). There was also a wonderful #4 by George Tzipine on a rather ancient Capitol LP.



These are all "in the vein" performances of great distinction. Some of them will be hard to find - but they are definitely worth searching out. Should you obtain them and enjoy the same "epiphany" they gave me, then I will feel amply rewarded for the effort spent in writing this review."

REGARDING ROUSSEL.......

Melvyn M. Sobel | Freeport (Long Island), New York | 11/27/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Roussel (1869-1937) is a fascinating, if not entirely memorable or original, composer who stands awkwardly in three doorways simultaneously: Neo-Romanticism, Impressionism and a distinctive early "modernism." [And for most of us, "The Spider's Feast" is as far as we've traversed Roussel.]



Dutoit and the ORTF National Orchestra offer up, however, well-defined, atmospheric readings of Roussel's rather neglected four symphonies on this bargain twofer and give us a rare glimpse into his remarkable musical development. For this reason, alone, the symphonies, which span the years 1906-1934, deserve our attention, if, perhaps, not our undying affection.



Most appealing is Symphony No. 1, Op. 7 ("Poem of the Forest") whose four movements--- winter, spring, summer, fall--- constitute musical "impressions," rather than typical descriptive aural poems or "pictures." You'll not hear chirping birds here, or howling winds. Roussel's tonal palette is far more sophisticated; yet, his forest is palpable and colorful. A most attractive nature walk... of the cerebral kind.



Least appealing is his Symphony No. 2, Op. 23, of 1921, which is annoyingly experimental and abrassive, especially in the two outer movements--- both of which outstay their quarter-hour-apiece welcome all too slowly.



Symphonies No. 3, Op. 42 and No. 4, Op. 53 shed Impressionism entirely and become, as Roussel observed, "more pruned, more distilled, more schematized... music which satisfies itself." In this Roussel succeeds entirely; his last two symphonies are models of Neo-Classicism and, in many ways, pay hommage to his former teacher, Vincent d'Indy.



The Roussel symphonies offer nothing profound, nothing truly emotional; however, there are enough unique musical twists and turns to delight any symphonist not familiar with this composer. And, too, the price, not prohibitive certainly, might prompt you to consider hearing these CDs.



[Running time--- CD 1: 58:46 CD 2: 58:26]



"

Great Music From Between the Two Wars

Daniel R. Greenfield | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States | 03/12/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Like Prokofiev, Roussel was deeply infuenced by Debussy in his earlier works. This is especially evident in Symphony 1, "Poem of the Forest". Coming to music late in his life, however, Roussel never seems to have really grasped the significance of the great upheavals produced in modern music by Stravinsky and Schoenberg. However, the Great War did have an enormous impact on his work; in his Symphony 2 he put aside the imporessionistic palette and turned inward. This symphony is very introspective and even somewhat gloomy. It is a very complex work which bears listening to repeatedly before one can sufficiently appreciate it. For this reason, I have to disagree with the previous reviewer's assessment of the Second. It is a truly noble work, in my opinion. Symphony 3 is of course the high point in Roussel's creative life. At least one notable musicologist has even called it one of the greatest symphonies of the XXth century. It has a lot of the same elan vital as Nielson's Espansiva. Symphony 4 is predominantly optimistic in tone - which is ironic, because it was written in the late thirties; only a few years later, Roussel's beloved France would lie prostrate under the scourge of Hitler's Third Reich. Overall, this is an excellent introduction to one of the greatest French composers of the twentieth century, whose music captures a lot of the ambivalence of that period "entre les deux guerres"."