Jean Roger-Ducasse (1873-1954)
The Best of Martin Jones: Discover … Jean Roger-Ducasse
Martin Jones (piano)
rec. 2014, Concert Hall of the Nimbus Foundation, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, UK
Nimbus NI7744 [72]
This is a sampler. In 2015, Martin Jones recorded for Nimbus three discs with the complete piano works of Jean Roger-Ducasse (review ~ review, with a detailed analysis, which I will not repeat here). Sadly, I missed that collection. Many will recall this French composer for a single work: the 1909 Pastorale for organ. More adventurous folk will have come across the two 1994 Marco Polo discs with a selection of his orchestral music, including his masterpiece Au jardin de Marguerite.
A few biographical notes may be of interest. Roger-Ducasse was born in Bordeaux on 18 April 1873. He studied with Émile Pessard and André Gédalge, and then, critically, with Gabriel Fauré. Success came when he won second prize for his cantata Alcyone in the Grand Prix de Rome. He devoted much of his career to teaching; in 1935, he succeeded Paul Dukas as Professor of Composition at the Paris Conservatoire. Some of his distinguished pupils included Jacques Ibert, Jéhan Alain. The regrettably ignored Scotsman, Francis George Scott, was a private pupil.
Roger-Ducasse’s wide-ranging catalogue includes the opera Cantergril (1931) and several major orchestral works, including the Sarabande (1907), the Nocturne d’Hiver (1921) and Epithalame (1923). There were chamber works, motets, songs and piano music. A recording of the large-scale Mahler-esque Ulysse et les sirènes (1937) for chorus and orchestra remains a desideratum for his admirers.
Jean Roger-Ducasse died at Le-Taillan-Médoc near Bordeaux on 19 July 1954.
Several things inform Roger-Ducasse’s style. He absorbed a great deal from Bach, especially in the use of counterpoint, and this discipline gives his music a strong inner structure even when the surface becomes highly decorated. He did not try to integrate modernist tendencies into his compositions. Whilst not eschewing contemporary harmonies, he used them more for interest than for shock. His music is rarely aggressive or bitter. Above it all stands the influence of his former teacher, Gabriel Fauré, from whom he inherited classical restraint, though he often pushes rhythmic complexity much further than his mentor ever did.
The Barcarolle from 1906, written for the piano, was later issued for harp and dedicated to harpist Alphonse Hasselmans. This delightful piece will make one aware of the influence of Fauré. The “velvety textures” offer a wonderful, if complex, meditation on a not-too-relaxing trip on a Venetian gondola. Barcarolles are usually composed in compound time (6/8 or 12/8); Roger-Ducasse has set the basic pulse as 3/4 but has laid groups of triplets above the left-hand accompaniment, giving the effect of 9/8 undulation. The rhythmic structure becomes more complex, and a considerable climax does not suggest La Serenissima on anything other than a stormy (or passionate) night.
In the Six Préludes, Roger-Ducasse – unlike Claude Debussy – does not attempt to provide a programme, literary or topographical. Each Prélude uses a limited amount of material, but is subject to “the logical unfolding, with flexibility and imagination, of a melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic motif, clearly established in the first measures of each piece” (M. Emmanuel, programme note). Interesting harmonies constantly enhance this thematic concentration. Martin Jones plays Nos.2, 5 and 6 here. The legendary French pianist Marguerite Long first performed the complete cycle on 13 January 1912, at the Société nationale de musique.
The programme samples two numbers from Roger-Ducasse’s Quatre Études. No.1 has all the hallmarks of Debussy’s “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum” from Children’s Corner, but its middle section is infinitely more complex to play, with increased chromaticism and nods to modernist techniques. No.2, a Fugue, opens lightly with a ‘très aimable’ theme derived from a children’s song. It is in only two voices, but this fugue (like many others) gets more complicated and technically difficult as it progresses. It balances the simplicity of the subject with demanding and dense episodes, stretto and coda.
The Arabesque No.1 was dedicated to the violinist and friend of Maurice Ravel, Ms. Hélène Léon (Hélène Jourdan-Morhange). This elegant number combines a succession of nimble motifs and flexible rhythms with inventive harmonic and pianistic detail. Ostensibly in F-sharp major, it is chromatically wayward. Sadly, Martin Jones only played the first Arabesque here; No.2 was completed in 1919.
How anyone can play Roger-Ducasse’s Rythmes, I will never know. I followed this brilliantly played piece in the score: it is a thesaurus of rhythmic devices, made more complicated by a shower of accidentals. It is certainly not easily accessible to the average pianist. It would be a thoughtful and commanding encore for any recital.
Martin Jones needs little introduction to piano music enthusiasts. Born in 1940, he is one of Britain’s most versatile and prolific pianists. He first received public attention on winning the Dame Myra Hess Award in 1968. His international career spans major concerto appearances, recitals and broadcasts. Distinguished by his vast discography on Nimbus Records, he has recorded complete piano cycles by composers from Mendelssohn and Debussy to Grainger and Jean Françaix.
The clear and informative liner notes include Rhys Ward’s good introduction to Roger-Ducasse’s life and work, and Adrian Farmer’s detailed notes on the present repertoire. They are, I believe, extracted from the material accompanying the original three-disc release.
After listening to this concise survey of Roger-Ducasse’s piano music, imaginatively played, I feel that I should explore the full set, to make up for lost time.
John France
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Contents
Barcarolle (1906)
Six Préludes: II. Très calme; V. D’un rythme capricieux et tender; VI. Très souple (1907)
Arabesques (1917)
Étude en Sol dièse mineur (1914)
Barcarolle No. 2 (1920)
Étude en sixtes (1916)
Quatre Études: I. Prélude; II. Fugue (1915)
Étude en La bémol majeur (1916)
Romance (1923)
Rythmes (1917)
