Roussel: The Spider's Banquet; Suites from Padmâvatî – review

Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Denève(Naxos)Having already recorded the four symphonies and the ballet Bacchus et Ariane, Stéphane Denève and the RSNO end their survey of Roussel's orchestral music with what is perhaps his most regularly performed score. The ballet-pantomime The Spider's Banquet was first performed in 1913, when Roussel's music had finally assimilated the "impressionism" of his French contemporaries. A two-part depiction of a garden's insect life, it's a sensuous, shimmeri...

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