Roger-Ducasse's complete piano works

[Ebubu]

Hello All !
Glad I discovered this wonderful forum !

I just happened to find a new recording of Roger-Ducasse's complete piano works, which I've been hoping for for a long time.  I've tried to get Stephen Hough interested in this composer, but unsuccessfully... This brand new 3-CD set has been (wonderfully, from little I've heard so far) recorded by Martin Jones, another champion of piano rarities, for Nimbus.

Roger-Ducasse is, in my opinion, a rather injustly neglected composer who'd deserve a resurrection in the concert halls.
His totally forgotten opéra-comique, CANTEGRIL, is a brilliant depiction of the lively atmosphere of a small pyrenean village, and its "piquant" characters, around the love affair of Cantegril (a pleasant version of a village Don Giovanni, and the sweet Francezine).  The score recalls at times Canteloube (the orchestral interludes), and Ravel (the lively Octet).

His ballet "Orphée", on the steps of Ravel's Daphnis & Chloé and Roussel's Bacchus & Ariane, is a wonderful, richly-orchestrated work which deserves a complete recording, and not just the 3 excerpts available on Naxos.

[Alan Howe]

Hi, and welcome to Unsung Composers!