now playing

start of Roussel: Symphony No. 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-8YUT9ID0o&list=OLAK5uy_lHHBEol2WYw7sauSJsnAmQwtUOhDHIWYk&index=2

Roussel: Pour une fete de printemps, Op. 22
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQfFLlSiDD0&list=OLAK5uy_lHHBEol2WYw7sauSJsnAmQwtUOhDHIWYk&index=5

start of Roussel: Suite in F
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOVNSOKArgs&list=OLAK5uy_lHHBEol2WYw7sauSJsnAmQwtUOhDHIWYk&index=5

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lHHBEol2WYw7sauSJsnAmQwtUOhDHIWYk

>Stephane Denève, music director of the Scottish ensemble, and a regular guest with the Toronto Symphony, conjures magic with his baton. Roussel often sounds like he's trying so hard to write "serious" music, but, the more you listen the more you appreciate his art of sonic metamorphosis - be it in imperceptible modulations, or handing over melodic lines from one group of instruments to another. The disc gets two extras, including the snappy, modernist Suite in F from 1926. Top track: The "Gigue" from the Suite in F brings together Baroque form with a modernist sensibility. -- Toronto Star, John Terauds, May 2008

random community review,
>Roussel's second symphony is probably a masterpiece, and certainly a riveting tour-de-force, from the shadowy opening passage and the striking thematic material of the opening movement, through the quite simply stunning, turbulent and swirling second to the finale's darkly quiet peaceful ending, the symphony, written in 1920-22 is far darker than the composer's first, and at this point Roussel has clearly moved on from his earlier romanticism toward something new - the energy and colors suggest, perhaps, Falla or even Bartók (certainly there is barely a hint of neo-classicism in the symphony). Most importantly, it is a great bolt of power that should bowl over anyone coming to the music for the first time.