Ursibel Fils de la Grande Ourse

This release brings together works composed by Jean Rogister (1879-1964) during World War I: like most of his coreligionists, banned by edict of the occupying forces from appearing in public or even from teaching, Rogister did “profit” in one way from the Great War in that he developed a new embryonic vocation. Whole-heartedly adopting the post-Franckian vein, and remaining faithful to traditional tonality, he forged his own musical idiom, partly due to his melodic verve. A century after the end of the war, now that a “new simplicity” is gaining ground, his meditative and melancholy works, shot through here and there by tensions of various kinds, should have no difficulty in appealing to a new listening public.