When a composer seems to have faded so completely out of our musical life, the assumption, true in some cases, is that history makes it's choice and that if a composer has fallen out of favor this simply means his music wasn't meant to last. But history does occasionally make mistakes: the case of Bach, eclipsed by his own sons after his death and known for some decades to only a handful of musicians until he was reinstated by Mendelssohn, is probably the most famous. Mahler was neglected until he was gradually rediscovered and is now a pillar of our musical tradition. There are other composers like Frank Martin or Zemlinsky who, it seems, are only gradually beginning to receive the recognition they deserve, and many other fine composers are still struggling to be heard today. In the case of Jean Roger-Ducasse, although most of his music is available on album one never hears him in concert halls and his name is unknown to the vast majority of musicians. Jean Roger-Ducasse studied at the Paris Conservatoire and was the star pupil and close friend of Gabriel Fauré. He succeeded Fauré as professor of composition, and in 1935 he succeeded Paul Dukas as professor of orchestration. His personal style was firmly rooted in the French school of orchestration, in an unbroken tradition from Berlioz through Saint-Saëns. Roger-Ducasse wrote music in nearly all classical forms and was particularly known for his operatic stage works and orchestral compositions.

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REVIEW:

The piano music of Jean Roger-Ducasse (1873-1954) is cut from the same subtle and refined cloth as that of his teacher and mentor Fauré, particularly in the latter’s elusive late works. Its difficulties lie not so much with virtuosic challenges as they do with issues of numerous expressive directives and clarifying contrapuntal movement.

It must be said that the titles are deceptive. Don’t expect the two Arabesques to resemble Debussy’s sylph-like creations. The first one, for example, begins with a simple melody cloaked by billowy chromatic movement. As the music unfolds, the piano writing grows thicker and fuller-bodied. Sounds more like a “Ballade” than an “Arabesque”, eh? The Etudes are etudes in the sense that they focus on specific technical issues, yet if Roger-Ducasse had titled them “Nocturnes” we’d be none the wiser. And what of the Sonorités in A-flat major, with its mercurial nature and scintillating sequences? That’s a Capriccio if there ever was one!

More importantly, though, Roger-Ducasse’s exquisite piano writing digs deeply and grows on you over repeated hearings. In 2015 Nimbus brought out Roger-Ducasse’s complete piano works played by Martin Jones in a three-CD set. A fine 2017 Roger-Ducasse release recital for the Grand Piano label featured the late pianist Joel Hastings. While these easily merit recommendation, I now lean toward Patrick Hemmerlé’s masterful interpretations; they command the edge insofar as textural transparency and control are concerned.

For instance, Hemmerlé avoids breaking tempo in the Third Barcarolle’s climaxes and keeps both the busy filigree and melodies supported by large chords in steady perspective. He also shapes the G-sharp minor Etude’s soft and persistent rotary figurations more lightly and evenly than Jones manages, along with a wider palette of tone color, despite slight sonic congestion in loud passages. This repertoire cries out to be discovered, disseminated, and adored.

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

This album presents a selection of world premiere recordings of music by Nikos Skalkottas, the most important Greek composer of the first half of the 20th century. Skalkottas was described by the famous critic and musicologist, Hans Keller, as one of the four "S" of modern music, together with Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Shostakovich. Presented on this album is the first ever recording of a work by Skalkottas, the two Greek Dances recorded in 1949 in Paris by the pianist Tota Economos in the French Radio studios. The famous recording of the Twelve Greek Dances (from the 36 Dances cycle) was made in 1957, until now only available as a monophonic recording, and now released here in real stereophonic sound. The Suite for Orchestra was composed in 1929 in Berlin, but the original score was lost in the composer's hasty departure from Berlin in 1933. The version recorded here uses a recently found score in America, now published by the Hellenic Music Center in Athens (which possesses the totality of Skalkottas's manuscripts). The Return of Odysseus, for two pianos was recorded in 1994 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory - the version here uses a revised score from 1995.

Intersection: 1955 puts in perspective works by two of the most important Greek composers working in the second half of the 20th century and this new recording contains mostly PREMIERE RECORDINGS. In 1955, Mikis Theodorakis, as a student at the Paris Conservatory under Eugene Bigot and Olivier Messiaen, composed the music for the ballet Erofili, later renamed Passacailles pour deux pianos. Passacailles is perhaps the most atypical and enigmatic set of works written by Theodorakis, though it heralded his future development as a composer. The work is rich in contrasts and sonorities: from the sound painting of an archaic landscape of the beginning, to the evocation of a cathedral organ in the last number, the work foretells the future Theodorakis of the grand oratories, of the Axion Esti and Canto General. The two cycles of extreme beauty on the poems of Paul Eluard written in 1958 are particularly distinguished by their great economy of means in harmonic writing and their use of a kind of Byzantine ison. The Six T. S. Eliot Songs by Jani Christou written in 1955, are the culmination of his period of acoustic compositions, long before he turned to the world of electroacoustic music or constructions which combined three artistic principles, music, dance and theatre, in the same work. Christou’s music perfectly reflects the atmosphere of Eliot’s poetry, and reveals the composer’s immense talent, as well as his ability to move audiences and interpreters alike. The use of the voice is very different from one melody to another, though the technical means employed are relatively similar. It offers the composer scope for exploration with regards to expression, musical discourse, the transformation of acoustical energies into music, the notion of praxis and dramatic action. The featured song cycles are performed by the distinguished mezzo-soprano Angelica Cathariou whose recordings of vocal works by Nikos Skalkottas, Iannis Xenakis and Manuel de Falla have received international critical acclaim. Pianists Nikolaos Samaltanos and Christophe Sirodeau, following internationally recognised recordings on music of Nikos Skalkottas, Samuil Feinberg and Viktor Ullmann among many others, complete this album with the Prelude and Fugue by Jani Christou. This early work was composed in 1944 in Egypt, at a time when Christou was studying piano with the famous Austro-Greek pianist Gina Bachauer, long before his studies of philosophy at Cambridge and music with Vito Frazzi, and Hans F. Redlich.

Following his internationally acclaimed albums of rare works by Samuil Feinberg, Viktor Ullmann and Hans Winterberg, among them several world premiere recordings, pianist and composer Christophe Sirodeau now turns to Johannes Brahms, presenting here a selection of 14 Intermezzi, a journey both poetic and mesmerizing. As a pianist, Sirodeau is principally a pupil of Evgeny Malinin (from 1982 to 1992) with whom he studied in both France and Russia, latterly at the Moscow Conservatoire (on a state scholarship, 1989-92). Among his other teachers were Alberto Neuman (a disciple of Benedetti Michelangeli), Thérèse Dussaut, Olga Lartshenko and Dora Rybac. Sirodeau is known for his broad tastes and his curiosity for rarely heard scores from past and present both in concert, in the recording studio and for the radio.

The recordings on this release are all world premieres, apart from the Suite, Op.11 by Feinberg, which was recorded by the composer himself in 1929. There is no direct connection between the two twentieth century composers, Samuil Feinberg and Hans (Hanu�) Winterberg, one a citizen of Russia and the Soviet Union; the other a decade his junior, of Czechoslovakia and Bavarian Germany. However, they are both among those composers abandoned by history despite the intrinsic merits of their work. The oblivion to which Winterberg was consigned was effectively total, held hostage to a posthumous embargo to which part of his family acceded, until his grandson initiated his rediscovery in 2015. By contrast, Feinberg had at least garnered admiration during his lifetime, and since, for his prowess as pianist and teacher. Both composed in their own very individual idioms, though sometimes making little concession to the listener or to the technical demands placed on the performer. As things have turned out, Christophe Sirodeau has been able to contribute to the salvaging of two works of these composers by editing and preparing their "lost and found" manuscripts for publication (with minimal editorial revisions required for performance), in addition to actually playing and recording them, of course! This sense of discovery of a lost world of music, and of revealing the character of it's creators is the impetus behind the programme of this album.