These two works have their charms. The Second Symphony (1900) hasn’t quite shaken off Ropartz’s Franckish roots, especially in its first movement, but its formal clarity and uncluttered orchestration pass the time quickly. The tunes of the finale in particular have a modal quality more commonly associated with the English pastoral school. Although based in a supposedly serious F minor, there’s hardly a trace of struggle or despair–Ropartz was a gentle soul. This is even more evident in the Fifth Symphony of 1944, which truly offers “the serenity of old age” (the composer was 80). The music flows with nary a trace of drama, but nevertheless offers plenty of good tunes and attractive scoring. Only the slow movement, lovely though it is, tends to drag.
The performances are adequate but not much more. The Nancy orchestra clearly is a provincial band. Strings sound somewhat thin, the brass lack world-class bravura, and the winds are pretty much anonymous. Still, the playing as such is technically proficient, even if the recording sounds as though it was made in an acoustically challenged local auditorium. Sebastian Lang-Lessing turns in performances that give a fair enough sense of what the music is about, and I strongly doubt that a more polished effort would offer any further revelations. This is just ordinary music, not especially original or expressively intense, by a composer of experience and taste. For collectors of unusual romantic repertoire, that may well be enough.
