Roussel: Symphony No. 2; Pour une fête de printemps; Suite in F. Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Stephane Deneve – Naxos 8.570529 (69 minutes).
Born in April 1869, Albert Roussel has always been considered as a perennial outsider in French music. Despite his desire to become a composer, he served in the French Navy, during which he rose to the rank of lieutenant and visited the Near East and China. These travels were to serve Roussel in good stead, as some of his mature works are based on Oriental sounds, the opera Padmavati being a prime example.
The composer left the navy in 1894, and from then on his career started in earnest, although his fixation on perfection nearly drove him mad. Indeed, Roussel destroyed almost all his compositions from the 1890s, and only made his public debut in 1903 at 34. Thereafter, he built up a select but significant oeuvre that falls into three distinct periods.
The three works on this disc outline the transitional phase of the composer, a period that was to lead to his full maturity and opened the door to a sound world full of resourceful harmony and intricate counterpoint mixed with energetic rhythms.
The Second Symphony was written between 1919 and 1921, and with its wide range of expression and dense orchestration it is not considered as one of Roussel’s accessible works. Still, this three-movement piece has many moments of great dramatic impact and emotional excitement and is deserving of a wider audience.
While working on this work, Roussel was also busy composing the symphonic poem Pour une fête de printemps, a work very much unlike the symphony.
With its alternation between serenity and gaiety, this creation has many felicitous passages, and the composer used it as a preparation for the much larger and elaborate symphony.
With the 1926 Suite in F, Roussel reached the peak of his maturity, and although the three movements hark back to the 17th century, the music is taut and economical in design and has a distinctive modern feel.
This issue is not for the squeamish or romantic at heart, but those who relish the off-the-beaten track repertoire should find much to enjoy. Sound and presentation are first rate.
Britten: Albert Herring (complete opera). Several soloists, the Northern Sinfonia conducted by Steuart Bedford – Naxos 8.660107-08 (141 minutes).
With Benjamin Britten’s birth centenary just round the corner (he was born in 1913), it seems very pertinent to have a fresh appraisal of his least performed operas. Indeed, Britten is definitely the greatest English opera composer since Purcell’s death in 1695.
His first work for the stage in 1945, Peter Grimes, created a sensation. The tragic depiction of a social misfit, struggling in vain to exist in a hostile society, enthralled audiences the world over, and from that point onwards, Britten’s place in 20th-century opera was assured.
By the end of his life in 1976, the composer had given the English stage 16 of the most fascinating and varied pieces ever to grace the pen of a British multi-musical genius. Albert Herring, a comedy set around the May Day festivities in the fictional village of Loxford in Suffolk, is Britten’s second chamber opera and the first production of the newly assembled English Opera Group.
Premiered at Glyndebourne on June 20, 1947, the work employs a medium-sized cast and a chamber orchestra of just 12 players, and it is a credit to Britten’s versatility that he was able to compose a comic opera bubbling with wit and character and, at times, pathos and poignancy.
Albert Herring is considered by many to be one of the greatest operas in the English language; each individual character has a direct musical personality, reflecting his or her dramatic persona, and this allows the opera to be a showcase of individuality and dramatic and musical coherence.
This recording, originally released on Collins Classics in 1997, remains one of the very best versions of the opera, although one must concede that Albert Herring has not been lucky as recordings go.
Bedford is a renowned Britten interpreter and he keeps things moving briskly without spoiling the sensibility of life in a rural community that is so marvellously portrayed in the score.
This is an excellent starting point in the discovery of the operatic Britten. The excellent sound quality and a full libretto complement a top-notch reissue.
These CDs were made available for review by D’Amato Record Shop of 98/99 St John Street, Valletta.