JEAN ROGER-DUCASSE- FORGOTTEN FRENCH GENIUS
Parick Hemmerlé discovers and plays the works of Jean Roger-Ducasse
If newly released music over the pandemic has a theme – it is how much of it is hidden, never heard or seldom sampled. It only takes a pause in the relentless razzmatazz around concerts and personality players in the classical music world – to find some new threads to wonderful music the world has missed until now. Or has forgotten entirely.
There is an element of ‘ so what’ about lost composers – that they couldn’t have been up to much in the first place and if they’ve disappeared from the sound horizon then well, they deserved it.
But just a minute – how about Bach, the original Johan Sebastian that is? He is almost a musical deity today – with everyone from mathematicians to ministers of religion claiming he is the fons et origo of all musical invention, quite simply the greatest composer who ever lived. But he was lost for ages, eclipsed, by his own sons (who themselves have long been consigned to relative footnotes in the Great Bach story). Mendelssohn revived JS in the nineteenth century, he himself was such a superstar that people took a second look at the composer played only by a few dedicated musicians since his death. There are others. Even the sublime symphonies of Mahler lay idle for some time. Today there is a more open approach to music all round, not new, but neglected composers emerge regularly – and during this hiatus in musical performance worldwide, some of the once-greats have burst to the fore.
Jean-Roger Ducasse is a good example. How did his resurgence happen ?To get a re-launch you need a sponsor. The brilliant world-renowned pianist Patrick Hemmerlé discovered this early twentieth century favourite and loved him- he made up his mind to record some of his piano works ‘It is my hope’ says the talented M.Hemmerlé, ‘that this album will show I have a case’.
But why did Jean Roger-Ducasse drop off the map quite so dramatically?
Patrick Hemmerlé has a go at an explanation. His personality, apparently, was rather off putting ‘ misanthropic’ in fact. And the music itself is difficult to play and actually ‘elitist’. Dread word, Hemmerlé probably has no idea what touchy word that is in Britain?. And certainly the cigar smoking Frenchman never served up a Bolero like Ravel, or a La Mer as did Debussy, designed to catch on in the public sphere. But then neither did Beethoven and he was famous for his implacable rages as well as for his unpleasant personal habits, yet there has never been such a celebrated genius in the history of Western music?
The Melism label celebrates the forgotten Frenchman in their new album of his piano works by Patrick Hemmerlé who says, “ I hope he will eventually find a place in the heart of people. And if this album can be a step towards a greater recognition of his music, I will be delighted. .
Playing piano with Fauré at the height of his fame
