Albert Roussel - Bacchus & Ariane; Spider's Feast (Yan Pascal Tortelier)

Information

Composer: Albert Roussel

• (01-22) Bacchus et Ariane, ballet, Op. 43
• (23-52) Le festin de l'araignée, ballet, Op. 17

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor

Date: 1996
Label: Chandos
http://chandos.net/details06.asp?CNumber=CHAN%209494

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Review

As compared to his contemporary Dukas, Roussel has been somewhat sidelined as a “connoisseur’s composer”. That presumably means that he did not write fat, lush tunes that could be exploited in television commercials, but produced works of vigorous ideas and more subtle quality. Record companies, as the dear old Record Guide (Collins) noted back in 1951, have on the whole tended to fight shy of his music – the Third and Fourth Symphonies have indeed maintained a foothold, but with the ballet Bacchus et Ariane, which is closely linked with the Third, we have mostly been given only its second half, and I haven’t encountered a new recording of the ballet Aeneas for a quarter of a century. Now that Martinu seems to be enjoying a comeback, perhaps the spotlight can move slightly to his teacher, whom he so admired; and if there is to be this shift of focus, the present disc is just what is needed to trigger that change.

For here are alert, rhythmically vital performances of Roussel’s two most famous ballets, which even at the most exuberantly excited moments (like the “Bacchanale” in Bacchus) preserve a truly Gallic lucidity, and which Tortelier marks by a captivating lightness of touch; and when it comes to quiet passages one could not ask for greater tenderness than in the beautiful end of Act 1 of Bacchus (shame on those conductors who neglect this for the more extrovert Act 2), when Bacchus puts Ariadne to sleep.

Le festin de l’araignee, written 18 years earlier, is in a quite different style. Where Bacchus’s trenchant idiom at times makes one think of Stravinsky’s Apollon Musagete, Le festin (which had the misfortune to be overshadowed by The Rite of Spring, produced only eight weeks later) is atmospheric and more impressionistic (in the same vein as Roussel’s First Symphony). It is a score full of delicate invention, whose one weakness is that for its full appreciation a knowledge of its detailed programme is needed – and that is provided here in the booklet. The BBC Philharmonic play it beautifully. If this is ‘connoisseur’s music’, I’m happy to be called a connoisseur: I find it delectable.

-- Lionel Salter, Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****
http://www.amazon.com/Albert-Roussel-laraign%C3%A9e-Tortelier-Philharmonic/dp/B000000B04

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Albert Roussel (5 April 1869 – 23 August 1937) was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His early works were strongly influenced by the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, while he later turned toward neoclassicism. He studied with Julien Koszul in Roubaix, with Eugène Gigout in Paris, then continued his studies until 1908 at the Schola Cantorum de Paris where one of his teachers was Vincent d'Indy. While studying, he also taught. His students included Erik Satie and Edgard Varèse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Roussel

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Yan Pascal Tortelier (born 19 April 1947) is a French conductor and violinist, and is the son of the cellist Paul Tortelier. At age 14, he was a first-prize winner for violin at the Paris Conservatoire. He was principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra (1989-1992), the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (1992-2003), Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (OSESP) (2009-2011) and currently, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. He is a regular recording artist for Chandos Records, and has conducted commercial recordings for Chandos with the BBC Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the OSESP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Pascal_Tortelier

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