January 27, 2012

  • Review: Roussel's Spider's Banquet

     

    Roussel: The Spider’s Banquet /Padmavati Ballet Suites
    Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Stephane Deneve
    Naxos 8.572243
    Total Time:  54:53
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

     

    Some 30 years ago I discovered, in a record store cutout bin, a London Treasury recording of a composer I had never heard of before, Albert Roussel (1869-1937).  Interested in expanding my musical knowledge and LP collection, this album found its way home.  The recording featured Ernst Ansermet conducting the Suisse Romande Orchestra in a piece called The Spider’s Banquet.  No doubt the title itself was enough to appeal to my younger interests as well.  The result though was the beginning of a great appreciation for the music of Albert Roussel and admittedly a bit of an obsession with finding recordings of his Third Symphony in particular.  That album is still in my collection, though I tend to listen more to the CD re-issue of it instead.  All of this to preface the review of this new release of Roussel’s 1912 ballet in Stephane Deneve’s fifth, and final (?), disc in his survey of the composer’s music. 

    Deneve’s recordings of the symphonies, and the filler works, are simply among the best Roussel’s music has certainly achieved on disc since the 1950s.  His approach helps point out the shifts in Roussel’s own music from early Impressionist style, through the Neo-Classical and Modern musical influences that would eventually meld into a distinctive sound.  The present release focuses on music from the second decade of the 20th Century allowing some intriguing music for those interested in music from this period.

    The primary work on the disc is the ballet-pantomime The Spider’s Banquet.    The story follows the life of insects in a garden as an allegorical tale to parallel human experience.  There are wonderfully descriptive titles here dung-beetles, fruit worms, and praying mantises receiving fascinating tableaus in the scenarios.  The two-part work focuses on these various creatures and their lives while part two follows the life cycle of a Mayfly from birth to death with the ballet concluding in a funeral for the deceased creature—among some of the composer’s most beautiful and touching scoring.  The ballet was first performed at the Theatre des Arts in Paris in 1913 and received revivals in 1922 and 1939.  “Symphonic Fragments” of the score were oft-performed for years and were next to the third symphony Roussel’s most-performed pieces. 

    The opening flute line will recall Debussy for many listeners but the harmonic shifts are a reminder that Ravel, who was six years younger, shares a similar post-Impressionist style.  The idea of line that is a part of the musical conception of that aesthetic continues here.  Lyric unfolding lines (reminiscent of spun-out Baroque ideas but with less mathematical precision) shift through the orchestra and provide intriguing colors throughout this work.  The unique rhythmic pulses Roussel explores may not be as visceral as a still younger contemporary by the name of Igor Stravinsky would explore within the coming years, but they already show a distinctness that will continue into his later orchestral music.  The almost filmic picturesque musical accompaniment is part of the work’s overall charm.

    Ansermet’s dedication to Roussel are some of the finer early recorded appearances of the composer’s work.  The aforementioned London release includes the complete ballet in four tracks playing out to about 29 minutes total playing time.  Deneve’s tempos result in a playing time closer to 32 minutes but allows access to the individual dance segments of the ballet which is a definite plus from the start.  Another important addition is the decidedly warmer acoustic allowed for the recording.  The dynamic range, stellar even in Ansermet’s recording, is of a demonstration quality on this release.  Part of the clarity of the orchestra itself is due to Roussel’s fascinating orchestration but the engineers still manage to create a realistic sound that allows many lines to shine, particularly at the lower end of the sound spectrum.  The orchestra responds equally well to the dramatic needs of the music which so aptly depicts its scenario aurally.  Even if this was the only work on the release this would be highly recommendable.

    The disc concludes with the two ballet suites from Roussel’s opera-ballet Padmavati.  The text was taken from a novel by Theodore-Marie Pavie, itself based on a medieval poem “Padmavat.”  The libretto by Louis Laloy takes these texts as an inspiration.  Roussel had actually visited the ruined city of Chittor in Rajasthan, India, while serving in the French Navy.  The result is that this experience encouraged him to include some aspects of Indian music into the fabric of his own work.  The opera was staged at the Paris Opera in 1923—though a combination of stage needs and technical difficulty of the music led to fewer later performances.   Roussel prepared two suites from the work in 1924 both of which appear here.  Each suite covers music from one of the opera’s two acts (i.e., Act One music is in suite one) and they tend to be performed together when performed at all. 

    Suite one features the opening prelude and two dances.  The “Prelude” features rich scoring and harmonies of an Impressionistic nature but the spacing of chords here sounds rather unique.  Some will also hear the technical rhythmic writing through the lens of Stravinsky’s ballets (remember his Rite of Spring had been the cause célèbre in 1913) though Song of the Nightingale may have more similarities.  Certainly the amazing complexity of the “War Dance” is a reminder of Roussel’s deft rhythmic writing as it is filled with a variety of shifts and odd patterns.  The “Dance of the Female Slaves” does feature rather unique melodic structures, here in smaller fragments, perhaps the closest Roussel comes to imitating Indian music—though it sounds more Middle Eastern.  The second suite opens with the Act Two “Prelude” which features some exotic turns of phrase in a heaver Impressionistic style with perhaps a little Puccini-like build.  The finale movement is the “Dance and Pantomime” segment of the act.  The music here feels again like a self-contained orchestral work that slowly fades away into nothingness.  Both this and the “War Dance” are perhaps the highlights of these two collections of music from the opera.

    Lovers of early 20th century music will find much to explore in the work of Albert Roussel.  His music spans the shifts from Impressionism (mostly because he destroyed all his work prior to 1890) and into the sort of Neo-Classical style that would be explored through the early decades of the century.  His orchestration and clarity of texture are what make his music fascinating to discover and enjoy.  If you have not heard Deneve’s Roussel symphony cycle, on four discs and now packaged as a set, add it when you pick up this delightful release.  Highly recommended, and though I’m not going to give up my youthful discovery, I hope that this will lead to someone else stumbling upon this music as I once did.