Roussel: Symphony No. 3 / Eschenbach, Orchestre de Paris

$14.99
Label
Ondine
Release Date
January 31, 2004
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      ROUSSEL, ALBERT
    • ORCHESTRA / ENSEMBLE
      Orchestre De Paris
    • PERFORMER
      Eschenbach
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      January 31, 2004
    • UPC
      761195110720
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      ODE 1107-2
    • LABEL
      Ondine
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Orchestral & Symphonic
    Works ⌄

    1. I. Allegro vivace

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    2. II. Adagio

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    3. III. Vivace

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    4. IV. Allegro con spirito

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    5. Prelude

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    6. A garden. - Sitting in her web, a spider surveys the surroundings

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    7. Entry of the ants. - They find a rose petal. - With great effort they lift

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    8. Left alone, the spider daydreams and watches the landscape. - She checks the strength of her thread.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    9. Entry of the dung beetles.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    10. The ants return. - They prepare to carry another petal, when a butterfly appears.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    11. Dance of the butterfly. - The spider invites the butterfly to dance closer to her web. - The butterfly is caught in the web and struggles.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    12. The spider rejoices. - She frees the butterfly from her web and takes it to her larder.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    13. The spider dances. - Suddenly fruits come crashing down from a tree.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    14. Fruit worms enter and prepare to revel in the fallen fruits.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    15. Warlike entry of two praying mantises who lift their frightening blades and forbid anyone to approach.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    16. The ants dance in a circle. - The two mantises blame each other for the trick which was played upon them.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    17. The mantises challenge each other to a duel. - They fight. - The spider dances in order to make the mantises more excited.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    18. A mayfly hatches.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    19. He dances.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    20. The mayfly stops, exhausted. - The ants, the spider and finally the dung beetles pay their respects.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    21. The mayfly and the fruit worms dance.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    22. The mayfly dies.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    23. The spider prepares to begin her feast, but one of the mantises, freed by the dung beetles from the web, slips behind the spider and kills her.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    24. Death throes of the spider

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    25. Funeral of the mayfly. - The funeral cortege sets off and vanishes into the distance.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

    26. Night falls on the deserted garden.

      Composer: Albert Roussel

      Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris

      Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach


REVIEWS:

The Third Symphony was...favored by Karajan in the 1950s. It was the product of a composer in his sixties writing in his Normandy home at Vasterival. It was premiered by the Boston SO and Koussevitsky on 24 October 1930. The thud and thunder of the first movement contrasts with the pastoral melancholy meditation of the Adagio. This is followed by the fairground pleasantry of the Vivace and the massive fountains of exultation of the last movement. No wonder the audience - whose applause forms part of the track - greeted this performance with such warmth.

Le Festin is here given complete across 21 tracks. You are likely to enjoy this music - if you do already know it - if you already number Ravel's Ma Mère l'Oye and Debussy's Prélude a l'après midi d'un faune among your favorites. It has the magical elegance of the Ravel and the sultriness of the Debussy. Add to this the motorized thunder of Roussel's last two symphonies. It is superbly recorded - listen to the whispering distant gold of the violins in The Ants Dance in a Circle (tr. 16). The instrumental howls in the Funeral of the Gadfly (tr. 24) are memorable. Also in the same movement how similar some of the writing is to Ravel's dawn rustlings in Rapsodie espagnole. Those gentle rustles from the tam-tam suggest Ma Mère l'Oye. Eschenbach heartbreakingly captures the valedictory melancholy of Night falling on the deserted garden but brings out the solace too. This makes for an easy full price choice - poetically done in every aspect.

– Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

The liner notes for this release make the argument that French modernist Albert Roussel was the greatest composer of his time. It is an argument Christoph Eschenbach and the Orchestre de Paris do much to advance in these live performances. Coupling Le Festin de l'araignée from 1912 and the Symphony No. 3 from 1930, Eschenbach and the Parisian orchestra give Roussel's music the kind of clear-eyed, strong-willed performances that make the most of the composer's best features. Though distinctly of its prewar time, Le Festin de l'araignée nevertheless sounds brightly colorful, lightly ironic, and surprisingly inventive in this smoothly polished and vigorously rhythmic performance. The postwar Third Symphony sounds both of and above its time here, its angular themes, gleaming colors, and muscular rhythms brilliantly brought out by the German conductor and the French orchestra. If Eschenbach and the Parisian musicians' racing finale for the symphony, with its relentless polyrhythms, doesn't get your heart pumping, consult a doctor immediately. Recorded in vibrant live sound complete with appreciative applause, these performances may well convince the listener that Roussel is indeed underrated.

– James Leonard, All Music Guide