Guy Ropartz: Piano Music

Guy Ropartz was one of the unsung heroes of French music, often conducting the music of his contemporaries with his orchestra in Nancy. That element combines with the dignified manner inherited from his teach, Cesar Franck, and the delicate shades of Debussyan Impressionism, to create an atmospheric and attractive style, instantly recognizable as French. This recording contains two large-scale suites, the first an evocation of the French mountains, the other the piano version of a frothy ballet written for Serge Lifar They are completed by the Franckian Choral varie and two lighter pieces from early in Ropartz's career.