Roussel: Symphony No. 4 / Rapsodie Flamande / Petite Suite / Sinfonietta

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About Roussel: Symphony No. 4 / Rapsodie Flamande

Review "...The Fourth Symphony has never been as popular as its famous predecessor, but certainly deserves to be. If anything, it has greater depth and more variety in its four movements and, arguably, the most profound slow movement Roussel composed. It may not have the powerful, motoric rhythms of the Third, but compensates with its greater lyricism. It has received its share of excellent recordings, too, but none better than this new one by the RSNO under Denève. His has been a superb series all round and no more so than in the current release. I have not heard the series by Christoph Eschenbach and the Orchestre de Paris, which has also received a good deal of attention, but I doubt that it could be better than this one. Heretofore my favorite recording of the Fourth Symphony has been the one by the Detroit Symphony under Neeme Järvi on a Chandos CD that also includes the second suite from Bacchus et Ariane, the Sinfonietta, and the Third Symphony. While that version of the Fourth is quite good, with excellent performance and sound, Järvi does not bring out the variety in the work the way Denève does. For one thing he races through the slow movement: his timing is 7:04 compared to 9:36 for Denève! This is more than a subtle difference, with Denève finding much more in it without ever sounding the least bit ponderous. Elsewhere, too, one is much more aware of the wonderful orchestration with the many wind solos making their presence felt, but with no distortion in the balance with the strings and percussion. Having listened to this new version numerous times, I cannot imagine a better performance of one of the twentieth-century's most delightful symphonies..." - Leslie Wright -- MusicWeb International - http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/June10/Roussel_4_8572135.htm "When the long-overdue renaissance of interest in the music of Albert Roussel finally arrives - may it be speedily in our day - the efforts of conductor Stéphane Denève will have played a large role in it. His ongoing recording series with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra makes an eloquent case for these orchestral works, written in the decades before and after World War I, which combine the sensuality of Debussy, the plucky vigor of Poulenc and a rhythmic buoyancy all his own. Roussel's Fourth Symphony (his last) is the headliner on this latest release, and although it lacks some of the charm and personality of the better-known Third, it moves in surprising and delightful ways - especially in the insouciant finale. The real treasures here are the smaller works - the "Flemish Rhapsody" with its reworking of Renaissance melodies, the beautiful "Concert pour petit orchestra" and the wonderfully compact Sinfonietta, which Denève performs with flair and conviction." -Joshua Kosman -- SF Gate: June 13, 2010 - www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/13/PK5C1DME1C.DTL 10/10 - Stéphane Denève's Roussel cycle for Naxos easily has been the finest ever recorded, and this concluding disc fully lives up to expectations. The Fourth symphony explodes with rhythmic vigor in the outer movements and captures all of the bittersweet lyricism of the slow second movement. It's an exuberant, effortless performance of a work that probably will never receive the attention it deserves on account of its brevity (just a touch more than 20 minutes) and pungent (but never gratuitously harsh) harmonic vocabulary. The couplings are all worthwhile, and important. The Flemish Rhapsody (Rapsodie flamande) is a virtually unknown but wonderfully tuneful, even catchy example of Roussel's punchy late style. You'll wonder where it's been. The three works for chamber orchestra (the Sinfonietta is for strings only) are all cut from the same cloth as the symphony, and they are just as well played. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra sports some fine players, particularly the principal trumpet, and Denève lets them demonstrate their artistry without ever losin