PASCAL ROGÉ MARKS 75TH BIRTHDAY WITH HIS FIRST RECORDING OF FAURÉ’S COMPLETE BARCAROLLES
New album released alongside The Complete Decca Recordings box set
Single 1 – Barcarolle No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 26 out now
https://pascalroge.lnk.to/Faure
To mark the 75th birthday of Pascal Rogé, Decca Classics will release a new all-Fauré album on 3 April, alongside The Complete Decca Recordings, a comprehensive 43-CD box set documenting his recorded legacy for the label.
Released just ahead of the pianist’s birthday on 6 April, Rogé’s new album is devoted entirely to the music of Gabriel Fauré and features his first ever complete recording of the composer’s 13 Barcarolles. One of the most demanding and elusive cycles in the French piano repertoire, the Barcarolles span almost fifty years of Fauré’s compositional life. The programme is completed by the Dolly Suite for piano four hands, performed with Rogé’s wife and long-time duo partner Elena Font.
Rogé has long been celebrated as one of the finest exponents of French piano music. When Decca Classics’ A&R Director, Dominic Fyfe, invited Rogé to make a new disc for his 75th birthday, his immediate answer was the music of Fauré.
“I wanted to do something consistent, through which we could show the artistry and the genius of Fauré,” Rogé says in a booklet interview with Jessica Duchen. “The Barcarolles offered a journey through his entire life as a composer, from the early works to the very last pieces.”
The album was recorded in Paris at the Église de Saint-Pierre, chosen for its acoustic and atmosphere. Rogé later discovered a personal connection to the venue: it was there that his mother began her career as an organist, a discovery that added an unexpected emotional dimension to the sessions.
Alongside the new album, Decca Classics also issues Pascal Rogé The Complete Decca Recordings, bringing together his recordings for the label made between the late 1960s and the 1980s. Rogé was signed by Decca in 1969 at the age of 18, on the recommendation of his teacher Julius Katchen, and went on to become one of the label’s defining pianists of the period.
As an exclusive Decca artist during the 1970s and 80s, Rogé documented the French piano repertoire in depth, recording interpretations of Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Satie that have long been regarded as benchmarks. The 43-CD box set spans solo piano music, concertos, chamber works and song, and also includes repertoire by Mozart, Beethoven, Saint-Saëns and Fauré, presented in original jackets.
Many of these recordings have been unavailable in physical form for several years. For collectors, the set also includes previously unpublished material, among them Brahms’s Second Piano Sonata, left unreleased at the time for want of a suitable coupling, a selection of preludes by Japanese composer Takashi Yoshimatsu, and a Mozart concerto recording conducted by Raymond Leppard, released for the first time on Decca.
The box set is accompanied by a newly commissioned essay by piano specialist Jeremy Nicholas, incorporating Rogé’s own recollections of the background to these recordings and his early introduction to Decca.
Rogé’s approach to sound and colour remains central to his playing. “I feel like a painter when I play. I see colours when I play and I try to add different ones. I use a lot of imagination: I will see nature, temperature, the wind, the moon. I need, always, to put an image behind the sound.”
ALBUM TRACKLIST
Gabriel Fauré, 13 Barcarolles
Barcarolle No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 26
Barcarolle No. 2 in G Major, Op. 41
Barcarolle No. 3 in G-Flat Major, Op. 42
Barcarolle No. 4 in A-Flat Major, Op. 44
Barcarolle No. 5 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 66
Barcarolle No. 6 in E-Flat Major, Op. 70
Barcarolle No. 7 in D Minor, Op. 90
Barcarolle No. 8 in D-Flat Major, Op. 96
Barcarolle No. 9 in A Minor, Op. 101
Barcarolle No. 10 in A Minor, Op. 104 No.2
Barcarolle No.11 in G minor, Op.105
Barcarolle No. 12 in E-Flat Major, Op. 106a
Barcarolle No. 13 in C Major, Op. 116
Dolly Suite, Op.56
I. Berceuse
II. Mi-a-ou
III. Le jardin de Dolly
IV. Kitty-valse
V. Tendresse
VI. Le pas espagnole
Pavane, Op. 50 (Arr. Plante for Piano 4 Hands) [digital only]
Requiem, Op. 48: Pie Jesu (Arr. Plante for Piano 4 Hands) [digital only]
Pascal Roge – Complete Decca Recordings
CDs 1-2: BARTÓK: Piano Concertos Nos. 1–3; Rhapsody.
London Symphony Orchestra / Walter Weller
FRANCK: Variations symphoniques
Cleveland Orchestra / Lorin Maazel
CD 3: BEETHOVEN: Piano Quintet; SPOHR: Septet
London Winds, Chantal Juillet, Christopher van Kampen
CDs 4–5: BRAHMS: Four Ballades Op. 10; Handel Variations Op.24 (1977 & 1991 recordings); Two Rhapsodies Op. 79; Fantasias Op. 116; Piano Sonata No. 2* (*previously unpublished)
CD 6: BRAHMS: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1–3; Scherzo from ‘F-A-E’ Sonata
Pierre Amoyal
CD 7: CHAUSSON: Concert; FRANCK: Violin Sonata
Pierre Amoyal; Ysaÿe Quartet
CDs 8–12: DEBUSSY: Piano music
Danse bohémienne; Deux Arabesques; Estampes; Mazurka; Pour le Piano; Rêverie; Suite bergamasque; Images I & II; L’isle joyeuse; D’un cahier d’esquisses; Masques; Danse; Children’s Corner; Préludes Book I (Decca recordings)
Préludes Book II; La plus que lente; Ballade; Le petit negre; Berceuse héroïque; Hommage à Haydn; Pièce pour l’œuvre du “Vêtement du blessé”; Douze Études (Onyx recordings)
CD 13: FAURÉ: Piano works
CD 14: FAURÉ: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2; Berceuse Op.16; Romance in B flat Op.28; Andante in B flat Op.75; Morceau de lecture
Pierre Amoyal
CDs 15–16: FAURÉ: Piano Quartets Nos. 1 & 2; Piano Quintets Nos. 1 & 2
Quatour Ysaÿe
CD 17: FRANCK: Variations symphoniques; Cello Sonata (after Violin Sonata); Piano Quintet (ASV recording)
Ross Pople (cello / conductor), London Festival Orchestra
CD 18: Liszt: Piano Sonata; Mazeppa; Vallée d’Obermann; Liebestraum S541/3.
BONUS: Giordano: Fedora / Act 2: Se innocente sei davvero, crederà*
*Magda Olivero, Mario del Monaco, Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra / Lamberto Gardelli
CD 19: LISZT: Années de pèlerinage: Italie S161
CD 20: MOZART: Piano Concertos Nos. 9 & 25; Rondo K.386 (first release on Decca)
Six Minuets K.1-5, K9a
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra / Raymond Leppard
CD 21: POULENC: Piano Concerto; Concerto for 2 Pianos; Concert champêtre
Sylviane Deferne (Concerto for 2 Pianos); Philharmonia Orchestra (piano concertos) / Charles Dutoit; French National Orchestra (Concert champêtre) / Charles Dutoit
CD 22: POULENC: Aubade; Suite française; Le Bal masqué; Rapsodie nègre
François le Roux; French National Orchestra (Concert champêtre) / Charles Dutoit
CDs 23–25: POULENC: Piano works
CD 26: POULENC: Music for 2 pianos/4 hands; Violin Sonata
Jean-Philippe Collard; Chantal Juillet*
CD 27: POULENC: Sextet, Trio, Oboe Sonata, Clarinet Sonata, Flute Sonata
Patrick Gallois, Maurice Bourgue, Michel Portal, Amaury Wallez, Andre Cazalet
CDs 28–31: POULENC: Mélodies
Catherine Dubosc, Gilles Cachemaille, Felicity Lott, Ursula Kryger, François Le Roux
CD 32: RAVEL: Piano Concertos; SAINT-SAËNS: Carnival of the Animals*
Cristina Ortiz*; Montreal Symphony Orchestra / Charles Dutoit
CDs 33–35: RAVEL: Piano music
Le Tombeau de Couperin, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Sonatine; A la manière de Borodine; A la manière de Chabrier; Gaspard de la nuit; Menuet antique; Menuet sur le nom de Haydn; Pavane pour une infante défunte; Prélude; Jeux d’eau; Miroirs; Ma mère l’oye (with Denise Françoise Rogé)
CD 36: RAVEL: Violin Sonata (1897); Violin Sonata; Tzigane; Berceuse; Kaddisch; Pièce en forme de habanera
Chantal Juillet
CDs 37–38: SAINT-SAËNS: Piano Concertos Nos. 1–5
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Charles Dutoit
CDs 39–42: SATIE: Piano Music (including works for four-hands*)
YOSHIMATSU: 7 Pleiades Dances (previously unpublished)
*Jean-Philippe Collard
CD 43: French Chamber Music – Saint-Saëns, d’Indy, Tansman, Francaix, Roussel, Poulenc, Milhaud
Catherine Cantin, Maurice Bourgue, Michel Portal, Amaury Wallez, Andre Cazalet