Jean Roger-Ducasse - Complete Piano Music | Nimbus NI5927

Jean Roger-Ducasse - Complete Piano Music

£19.90

Currently out of stock at the UK suppliers. Available to order, but is likely to take longer than usual to despatch

Label: Nimbus

Cat No: NI5927

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 3

Release Date: 1st June 2015

Contents

About

Jean Roger-Ducasse was born in Bordeaux on 18 April 1873. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1892 and in 1895, along with Ravel, joined the composition class of Gabriel Fauré. In 1902 he won the second Grand Prix de Rome with his cantata 'Alcyone', with Ravel gaining fourth prize.

He had a very active role in musical life in Paris, founding the Société Musicale Indépendante in 1909 and gaining the position of inspector general for the teaching of singing in Paris schools in 1910. His circle included Fauré, to whom he was a close friend, the famed pianist Marguerite Long, who performed his Six Preludes in 1912, and Debussy, who Roger-Ducasse joined for the premiere of 'En Blanc et Noir' in 1916.

In 1935 he succeeded Paul Dukas as Professor of Composition at the Paris Conservatoire, a post he held until the outbreak of World War II, after which he retired to Bordeaux. He died in Taillan-Médoc, Gironde on 19 July 1954.

Roger-Ducasse's compositions include several songs, two string quartets, numerous orchestral and choral pieces, two stage works and a sizeable group of piano pieces. Contrary to the music of Ravel and Debussy, Roger-Ducasse's style is not impressionist but descends from Chopin and more closely aligns with Fauré. The piano music, composed 1906-1923, is typical of his musical language: complex and chromatic, but perfectly formed. It is now high-time to revisit the works of this unjustly forgotten talent.

Adrian Farmer joins Martin Jones for the duets.

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