Maurice Le Roux

condition (record/cover): NM / NM Gatefold sleeve.  Maurice Le Roux conducted premieres of Pierre Boulez and Olivier Messiaen, led the Orchestre Philharmonique de l'ORTF, shaped French musical life from the podium for decades. Un Koan / Inventions A Deux Voix / Au Pays De La Magie / Le Cercle Des Métamorphoses on Disques Adès reveals him as composer, a role his conducting career often overshadowed.

"Un Koan" borrows from Zen Buddhism that paradoxical question designed to shatter rational thought. Le Roux translates the concept into orchestral terms: music that poses problems it refuses to solve, that frustrates the ear's desire for resolution. Michel Béroff and Georges Pludermacher provide the keyboard work, while Jean-Christophe Benoit lends his baritone to vocal passages. The combination of instrumental virtuosity and vocal presence gives these pieces theatrical dimension.

"Au Pays De La Magie" and "Le Cercle Des Métamorphoses" continue the exploration: magic lands, circles of transformation, titles suggesting Henri Michaux's visionary journeys or Gérard de Nerval's nocturnal wanderings. Le Roux's orchestral language owes something to Messiaen's color and something to Boulez's rigor, but finally sounds like neither. The Adès pressing preserves a composer who deserves reassessment, whose works for other ensembles kept him from fully developing his own catalog.