Albert Roussel - Symphony No. 3, Op. 42 (1930)

Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (5 April 1869 - 23 August 1937) was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His early works were strongly influenced by the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, while he later turned toward neoclassicism.
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Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 42 (1929-1930)
Dedication: Boston Symphony Orchestra: Serge Koussevitzky
(1874-1951)
I. Allegro vivo
II. Adagio (5:29)
III. Vivace (15:00)
IV. Allegro con spirito (18:08)
Orchestre National de France conducted by Charles Dutoit
Description by Adrian Corleonis [-]
At every stage of his career, Roussel's best work is masterly finished, engaging, surefire. But for the connoisseur, tracing his stylistic evolution possesses a fascination of its own. If the opera-ballet Padmåvatî (1914-1918) crowns his second manner, making explicit the preoccupation with instinct and annihilation ironically broached in the ballet Le Festin de l'araignée (1912), his Symphony No. 2 (1919-1920) encapsulates the period with formal yet disturbing point. The ironic detachment of Le Festin gives way to dark (and harmonically adventurous) foreboding, while the irrepressibly animated episodes are fraught with frenzied feverishness. But by the mid-1920s the skies had cleared, so to speak, and Roussel entered his final, neo-Classical, phase with the orchestral Suite in F (1926) whose three movements -- two in Baroque dance forms -- afford a foretaste of the Symphony No. 3 in their effortless combination of energy and serenity. Commissioned by Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Suite received its premiere by those forces January 21, 1927, continuing a Francophile tradition that had seen Henri Rabaud and Pierre Monteux as chef d'orchestre, and entertained Roussel's teacher and colleague, Vincent d'Indy, in 1905 and 1921.
To celebrate the B.S.O.'s 50th anniversary, Koussevitzky commissioned a number of works including Honegger's Symphony No. 1, Prokofiev's Fourth, Hindemith's Concert Music, Op. 50, Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, and Roussel's Symphony No. 3. The Third occupied Roussel from August 1929 through March 1930. Roussel and his wife were present for the Boston premiere, October 24, 1930, the composer remarking that Koussevitzky had conducted "with an extraordinary care and enthusiasm," and noting the day after, "As far as I can gauge after this hearing, it is the best thing I have done...." That, indeed, has been the consensus of critics and listeners alike -- only the ballet Bacchus et Ariane, which followed it immediately, has rivaled it in popularity. From the sardonic strut of the opening, the Third is immediately arresting, while its tightly coiled argument -- compact even for the form-conscious Roussel -- compels by its melding of logic and vivacity, sophistication and primitivism. The second movement transcends counterpoint in a miracle of passionate, ostinato-driven polyphony, while the scherzo and final Allegro con spirito -- elegant and rumbustious by turns -- are wrought with colossal playfulness. Albert Wolff and the Concerts Lamoureux gave the Paris premiere on November 28, 1931, and made a classic recording of the work the following year.

[@valerieheinderyckx4506]

Bravo, un véritable hymne à la vie... Merci.

[@windowtrimmer8211]

The coda beginning at 23:37 is extraordinarily rollicking and satisfying. Three final statements of the theme, answered by the sixteenth notes in the trumpets, then the triumphant concluding tutti “g”. One of the greatest endings in symphonic music.

[@DavidA-ps1qr]

This is a compelling symphony and demonstrates a great balance between tradition and innovation. Roussel packs an awful lot of material into a relatively short space of time. It is worthy of more performances in today's concert halls.

[@PhilippeBrun-qy3st]

Extraordinaire symphonie...dont l'énergie motrice semble constituer la source vitale. Merci encore.

[@ericwyness9089]

Gets one's attention from the first, then holds one rapt, in a spell. One of my very favourite composers.

[@Classicalsimp]

Best music I've ever heard

[@Snow_Sugar]

Thanks

[@maribelochoa2160]

Enjoying!!! Thanks for sharing so much beauty! 👏👍🙌🎼🎹

[@forlandm]

One of my favourite symphonies. Never had the chance to hear it live.

[@jamesbarlow6423]

No one has

[@johnmarkbrailsford24]

The Halle Orchestra in Manchester performed this symphony in 1985, and the B.B.C. Philharmonic Orchestra did likewise in 2006. I attended both concerts. I recently sent a request to the B.B.C. in Salford for a public performance of Roussel's masterly Fourth Symphony; the Orchestra played his 'Suite in F' a few years ago.

[@paddyd7009]

@@jamesbarlow6423 I did. Royal F Hall - Solti 👏👏

[@remove_kippa9578]

thank yuuu

[@dapr990]

A truly inspirational work. I love the combination of motoric drive, harmonic angularity, and uniquely 'French' refinement in the orchestration. Such subtle use of musical motifs that, whilst at face value, may not seem immediately memorable - yet are constantly shifting and transforming - permeating the musical tissue, as well as burrowing into your subconscious. It's a masterclass in "purely" musical argument. The slow movement in particular feels to me like 'hyper-compressed' Bruckner, with almost Cubist shifts in perspective. Bravo!

[@jamesbarlow6423]

Prolific dadaism surmounting obligatory modernity into a realm of serene cosmicity! Sizzling inanities wayladen by an impeccable thirst! Ditto obligato.

[@maxgregorycompositions6216]

@@jamesbarlow6423 Ostentatious Expressionist meanderings overcoming post-colonial part-writing, melting into rhapsodic fugal interludes, interlaced with, and straddled by, discombobulating disquietudes of symphonic scale.

[@isaiahcruz3431]

This is awesome, thank you!

[@PeterLunowPL]

blown away by this recording !!!! I love Bernstein and Celibidache in this symphony ,but this one surpasses them both, in my opinion, in passionate drive ( especially the first movement!), clarity and polyphony(second movement!) and balance between the instruments. The recording is also excellent.

[@jamesbarlow6423]

Regrettably antidepth.

[@frankborder]

that's because dutoit is 4x either of the other two, conservatively

[@johnpcomposer]

This is a delightful work of great ingenuity and purpose...just a bit of that Prokofiev influence there with the use of woodwinds and the terse argument and twisting high string passages....But it's much more than that. Beautifully controlled, yet so free. I had heard about Roussel a couple of decades ago but did not give his symphonies the attention they deserved. The orchestral coloring is quite effective. Should be performed more often...like skip a Mozart now and then and put this on the program.

[@MattWeisherComposer]

Prokofiev was my first thought. I love it.

[@driblay2203]

Tengo pocas nociones de haber creado esta sinfonía Sentado en un sillón, con la luz del sol Dando hacia mi lado derecho, vestido de traje, Fui Albert en mi vida pasada.

[@yowzephyr]

0:00 is a good place to start. ^

[@VK-sp4gv]

19:31 Symphonie Fantastique, anyone?

[@eduardo6386]

Maravilhoso

[@davegambit]

The story of Erik Satie brought me here

[@atp2149]

3:42 4:54

[@tomlin1312]

旋律新鮮,刺激,好聽! 以前買到CD,是erato出品的,一直聽聽不膩! 很久沒聽了! 但記得這首應該是F大調組曲,而非第三號交響曲!?

[@natheniel]

樂曲用降B大調寫成。

[@natheniel]

F大調組曲在此：kzbin.info/www/bejne/o168oWCre7msY6s

[@whatadamnusername]

Man, all this time I figured this was from the late 19th century, not the 1930s. He's like the French Rachmaninoff in that regard.

[@gabrielkaz5250]

9:10

[@juhaniranki5323]

Hindemith.