Albert Roussel (1869 - 1937), Sérénade for Flute, String Trio and Harp, Op.30 (1925)
Performed by the Mirage Quintet (2009)
00:00 - No. 1 Allegro
04:38 - No. 2 Andante
11:34 - No. 3 Presto
Roussel's Serenade for Flute, Harp and String Trio, composed in 1925 for the noted flutist and Paris Conservatoire faculty member René Le Roy, draws a luminous and widely varied range of instrumental colors from its modest ensemble. The opening movement is an ingenious construction loosely modeled on traditional sonata form: the first half of the movement comprises three themes and their brief developments -- a lyrical, arching flute strain; a jaunty tune in quick notes, also begun by the flute; and a march-like, snapping-rhythm viola melody played staccato -- each given at a progressively faster tempo (Allegro -- Poco più mosso [a little more motion] -- Allegro molto). The sequence, modified in its details, is reiterated as a recapitulation before the movement comes to an excited close (Presto) with a coda based on the march-like motive.
The Andante, suspended upon a long winding melody for the flute in its outer sections and another one for the cello at its center, is languid, sensuous and a little mysterious, a reminiscence of the Orientalism that Roussel was fond of evoking in his works of the 1920s. The finale is a vibrant and tensely rhythmic dance for which the viola's poignant and expansive theme at the center of the movement provides formal contrast and expressive balance.
