Roussel: Bacchus and Ariane suite no 2

Day 269

Roussel: Bacchus and Ariane suite no 2

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Walter Weller

I came across Roussel as a student (it might even have been at school) where my recording of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice included The Spider’s Feast as a coupling. I suppose that I must have listened to at at least once but I have no memory of it and I don’t recall having heard anything anything else by Roussel since then. 

I found the opening of this, the second suite, completing listening - Roussel conjured up an impressive atmosphere with some highly sensitive orchestration. But as the piece went on I found my interest waining. I couldn’t quite get onto the right wavelength - it seemed to me that what we had here as little more than warmed up Ravel and Debussy. Perhaps I just wasn’t in the mood, because many people speak very highly of the score, but although the suite is short I didn’t find that it maintained my interest, even though I was following it with a score.

This ends this part of the project exploring some ballet music. Next I am going to turn to symphonies, exploring some works by composers on the fringes of the repertoire.