ROPARTZ: Le Miracle de Saint Nicolas

Henry, Didier, Ile de France Vittoria Regional Choir, Le Texier, Vincent, Nancy Symphony Orchestra, Papis, Christian, Piquemal, Michel

8.555656

The development of his work bears witness a constant renewal that can be assessed from the music here recorded from the Franckian setting of Psalm XXXVI (1897) to the limpid serenity of Les Vêpres sonnent (1927) or the impressionist atmosphere of the Nocturne (1926). In addition to the differences of language, we find there the same personality, more inclined to inner feeling than to the more external search for novelty in writing. Ropartz does not reject this last: for himself at least musical vocabulary must be controlled by interior demands. • He has expressed this admirably himself: "If the originality of a composer dwells much more in the way of feeling than in the manner of expression, it is permissible for him to clothe his thoughts in traditional forms, without losing in any way his true quality." This originality results in his work in a mysticism attributable to his Celtic origin which breaks through under the serenity and seriousness of his music. The Ropartz phrase, with its long tranquil meandering seems to wander beyond time. It takes its course over a rich harmonic basis, of which the imprecise mist of chromaticism blurs the contour, while polyphonic richness underlines the turns it takes. The music of Ropartz thus belongs to his native region, even if he has repudiated more immediately folkloristic superficiality.

CD x 1

Naxos

23.07.2001

747313565627