Pascal Rogé at 75

The French pianist Pascal Rogé celebrates his 75th birthday this week, with a new album of Fauré and a career-spanning box set, both on Decca – the label to which he first signed at the age of eighteen.

Rogé’s first recordings were an accomplished Liszt recital, and the Chopin pastiche role of Lasinzki in Gardelli’s 1969 recording of Fedora. The Liszt includes arresting accounts of the sonata and Vallée d'Obermann, and demonstrates why his teacher, the legendary Julius Katchen, had the confidence to promote Rogé to Decca. There’s a scintillating combination of depth and youthful impetuosity, and I can imagine any owner of the new box set listening to it many times and enjoying the nicely placed bonus extract from Fedora. Jeremy Nicholas mentions, in his engaging booklet notes, that the 1970 Gramophone review of that first solo album suggested Rogé may go on to be viewed as 'the most important pianist since Sviatoslav Richter'. Arguing that anyone is the most important pianist of any generation is futile and over-reaching, but taken as a whole, the new forty-three disc box set certainly demonstrates how much there is to celebrate about this particular French pianist.

The defining characteristics of Rogé’s playing are crystalline clarity and a level of objectivity that gives voice to the music rather than imposing ego upon it, and he has been most revered in the music of his compatriots, in which the already vivid harmonic and rhythmic colours benefit from his approach. Listen to the third of Poulenc’s nocturnes, Les Cloches de Malines, or the forlane from Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin as two of many effective examples. There are celebrated recordings of Debussy to explore in the box set too, some of which will make you stop and think by virtue of a certain starkness, but all are beautiful in their deft colouring - a quality which makes Rogé’s extensive Satie recordings (four discs) indispensable.

Less familiar, are rewarding accounts of Beethoven and Spohr with London Winds, and elegant Mozart with Raymond Leppard. The Brahms recordings prove a happy reminder of his pedagogical lineage; the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel and Op. 116 pieces on disc five are particularly strong, as is the second sonata, recorded at Kingsway Hall in 1975 in the same sessions as the variations, and released here for the first time.

Rogé’s mastery of musical architecture is nowhere more in evidence than in the second of the Saint-Saëns piano concertos, in which Charles Dutoit is an ideal partner; and in the Bartók concertos with Walter Weller, his intelligence and metric exactitude are at the heart of the playing, with strong rhythmic punctuation making for thrilling accounts that challenge the best.

The beautifully presented Decca box is also a welcome reminder of Rogé’s skill as a chamber musician, and his recording of Franck’s violin sonata with Pierre Amoyal is especially powerful. There is a real sense of communion between the two musicians, and the clarity and balance of Rogé’s playing is perfectly suited to Amoyal’s searingly beautiful tone. The impassioned fourth movement is one of the most moving on record.

Fauré has been a key composer in Rogé’s repertoire throughout, and his mid-nineties recordings of the chamber music with Quatuor Ysaÿe can be considered definitive, with some of his best playing on record. These are rich and colourful readings by all concerned, beautifully captured by Decca, the sense of ensemble between the players almost tangible. These are a key highlight of this celebratory box set.

That leads nicely to the new album, which presents Fauré’s complete barcarolles, alongside works for four hands, played with Rogé’s wife, Elena Font – the Dolly Suite, and arrangements of the Pavane and Pie Jesu.

Although Rogé previously recorded a small selection of these pieces for a Fauré recital album in 1989 (which I grew up listening to), this is the first time he has recorded the full set, and it’s a collection anyone familiar with that earlier release will welcome. The playing is warm and expressive, showing affection without affectation, as has been the hallmark of this aristocrat of French pianism. The partnership in the four hands pieces is strong, and there is a particularly lovely sense of playfulness in the Dolly Suite.

This husband-and-wife team has been busy, having also recently released a Poulenc album on the Onyx label, on which they play the sonata for two pianos and the sonata for piano four hands. In both, rhythmic vitality stands out especially, and the simplicity of approach which has always been such a strong feature of Rogé’s solo playing is similarly effective here. Also on this album, Rogé is joined by Lidy Blijdorp in a persuasive interpretation of the cello sonata, and there’s some solo piano pieces sensitively played by Font, making it an easy recommendation.

Poulenc takes us full circle, back to that brilliant Decca box, and some recordings that are cornerstones of the catalogue - ten discs in all, including the solo piano music, piano concertos, songs, chamber music and other works for piano and orchestra. They are a delight, and a record of Rogé at his unmissable best, again partnered with kindred spirit Charles Dutoit in the works with orchestra.  

These three releases together form a great celebration of an erudite musician who has always expressed interesting things about everything he plays by not overplaying, so that the colours set down by the composer are lifted to life from the page, much as was the case with the mentor who helped launch his career.