Albert Roussel - Symphony No. 4, Op. 53 (1934)

Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (5 April 1869 – 23 August 1937) was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His early works were strongly influenced by the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, while he later turned toward neoclassicism.

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Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 53 (1934)
Dedication: à Albert [Louis] Wolff (1884-1970)

1. Lento—Allegro con brio
2. Lento molto (6:33)
3. Allegro scherzando (15:09)
4. Allegro molto (18:03)

Orchestre National de France conducted by Charles Dutoit

Description by James Leonard
Written by the sick and tired 65-year-old composer in a single three-and-a-half-month period in the fall of 1934, Albert Roussel's Symphony No. 4 was nevertheless one of the most vigorous and optimistic symphonic works of the 1935 season. Written in the traditional four movements and in the conservative harmonic language of la belle époque expressed in the severe counterpoint of the Schola Cantorium, Roussel's Fourth is still an extremely powerful and affecting work imbued with sincerity, strength, nobility, and a very, very dry wit. After a radiantly glowering Lento introduction, the opening Allegro con brio in sonata form never varies its pulse as it builds to an abrupt coda. The Lento molto may be the most expressive music Roussel ever wrote, solemn but emotionally searing music of uncommon power and sincerity. The Allegro scherzando is a muscular jig with just the slightest trace of irony. The closing Allegro molto is also in sonata form, but a sonata form permeated by a concentrated wit and a joyful counterpoint culminating in a magnificent coda.