Debussy: Great Composers in Words & Music

$13.99
Label
Naxos
Release Date
June 10, 2022
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      Claude Debussy
    • PERFORMER
      Lucy Scott
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      June 10, 2022
    • UPC
      747313836475
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      8578364
    • LABEL
      Naxos
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Classical
    Works ⌄

    1. Introduction

    2. Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune: bars 1-5

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Ensemble: Orchestre National de Lyon

      Conductor: Jun Märkl

    3. For the 20th-century composer and conductor Pierre Boulez…

    4. Children's Corner: VI. Golliwogg's Cake-Walk (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Performer: Paavali Jumppanen

    5. That was an extract from Debussy's six-movement piano suite…

    6. Nuit d'étoiles (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Performer: Lorna Windsor, Antonio Ballista

    7. The extent to which Debussy's love affair with Mme Vasnier…

    8. L'enfant prodigue: Cortège et Air de danse (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Ensemble: Orchestre National de Lyon

      Conductor: Jun Märkl

    9. Though he had gained the highest honours for The Prodigal Son…

    10. Printemps: II. Modéré (arr. H. Büsser for orchestra) (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Ensemble: Orchestre National de Lyon

      Conductor: Jun Märkl

    11. Back in Paris, Debussy's relationship with Mme Vasnier gradually fizzled out

    12. 5 Poèmes de Charles Baudelaire: No. 2. Harmonie du soir (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Performer: Claire Booth, Andrew Matthews-Owen

    13. If his old musical comrades seem to have deserted him…

    14. Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune: bars 51-64

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Ensemble: Orchestre National de Lyon

      Conductor: Jun Märkl

    15. Faune was first performed, with Debussy at the piano…

    16. String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10: II. Assez vif et bien rythmé (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Ensemble: Kodály Quartet

    17. During this time, Debussy was also busy composing two large-scale works…

    18. Nocturnes: No. 3. Sirènes (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Ensemble: MDR Rundfunkchor, Orchestre National de Lyon

      Conductor: Jun Märkl

    19. Debussy's Nocturnes received both warm applause and frosty criticism

    20. Pelléas et Mélisande (Pelleas and Melisande), Act I Scene 1: Une forèt (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Ensemble: Orchestre National de Lille

      Conductor: Jean-Claude Casadesus

    21. That was an extract from the beginning of Debussy's first and only completed opera…

    22. 2 Danses, "Danses sacrée et profane": No. 2. Danse profane (version for harp and solo strings) (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Ensemble: Vertavo String Quartet

      Performer: Ellen Bødtker, Sjur Bjaerke

    23. It was also during this post-Pelléas period that Debussy was decorated…

    24. Images, Book 1: No. 1. Reflets dans l'eau (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Performer: Klára Körmendi

    25. Also about water is the third movement…

    26. Images, Book 2: No. 3. Poissons d'or (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Performer: Klára Körmendi

    27. A new period of Debussy's life was soon to begin…

    28. Images: No. 2. Ibéria: Par les rues et par les chemins (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Ensemble: Orchestre National de Lyon

      Conductor: Jun Märkl

    29. In 1909 a group of artists and musicians from Russia arrived…

    30. Jeux (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Ensemble: Orchestre National de Lyon

      Conductor: Jun Märkl

    31. Interestingly, Faune and Jeux were not the only theatrical works…

    32. Syrinx (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Performer: Patrick Gallois

    33. In 1914, having returned to Paris…

    34. 12 Etudes: No. 3. Pour les quartes (For fourths) (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Performer: François-Joël Thiollier

    35. In 1915, Debussy once again departed Paris…

    36. Préludes, Book 2: No. 10. Canope (excerpt)

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Performer: Chengzong Yin


Claude Debussy is regarded by many as the quintessential French composer, with music that invited both warm applause and frosty criticism in his day. While our ears no longer hear him as controversial, his works heralded the dawn of an artistic period founded on innovation and experiment, and a desire to break with the past in search of new expressive means. With never a dull moment, Debussy went from being a musical misfit at the Paris Conservatoire to bohemian life amongst the Symbolist poets with involvement in some scandalous love affairs. The transformative effect of pieces such as the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune eventually saw him awarded the Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneurin 1903. The narrative is illustrated with musical excerpts from Children’s Corner, String Quartet in G minor, Images, Nocturnes and Pelléas et Mélisande, among many others. Actor Lucy Scott delivers musicologist Dr. Davinia Caddy's words with conviction and warmth.