Roussel: Évocations, Pour une fête de printemps & Suite in F Major

Featuring

Yan Pascal Tortelier
Kathryn Rudge
Alessandro Fisher
François Le Roux
BBC Philharmonic
City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus

Albert Roussel

Did you know?

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Recording & Production

This album was recorded in two different venues: Symphony Hall, Birmingham (live) for Évocations, and MediaCityUK, Salford, Manchester for the other works.

Composition History

Roussel's Évocations was inspired by his experiences in India during his travels in Europe and the Far East with his wife.

Composer's Artistic Vision

After World War I, Roussel believed that music composed before the conflict would be seen as 'pre-war stuff' and that future music would be created differently.

Composer Biography

Albert Roussel (the composer) experienced significant loss early in life, losing his father before age two, his mother before age nine, and his grandfather before age eleven.

Compositional Technique

Roussel's Pour une fête de printemps features a palindromic structure, which likely reflects the teaching of Vincent d'Indy, his professor at the Schola Cantorum.

Composer Biography

Roussel initially joined the navy at fifteen and traveled to the Far East, composing music throughout his travels.

Critical Reception

Roussel's Suite in F was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky, a conductor whose spring concerts in Paris were unmissable musical events in the early 1920s.