Claude Achille Debussy

Behind the intense sensual beauty of Debussy’s scores was the keen intellect of a determining force in 20th century music. Drawing on diverse musical influences and eclectic literary and pictorial sources, his genius shaped a distinctive style, expressed in a meticulously detailed language.

In his iridescent orchestral works, his vivid and innovative piano music, and his haunting chamber pieces, Debussy, who towards the end of his life signed himself ‘musicien français’, opened up a new musical world.

Deutsche Grammophon presents internationally acclaimed conductor Myung-Whun Chung and his Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra with a new album. The orchestra is “a world-class ensemble” (Berliner Morgenpost) setting a new standard for orchestral music in Korea and regularly breaking records by playing for largely sold-out audiences.

The album includes Debussy’s La mer followed by two live recordings of Maurice Ravel’s Ma mère l'oye and La Valse.

The larger-than-life Régine Crespin, made only one song recital record for Decca, of music by Schumann, Wolf, Debussy and Poulenc. This is the first time the entire recital has been made available on CD.

As her career progressed, Crespin became associated with certain roles – Kundry, Sieglinde, Brünnhilde, Tosca, the Marschallin – but she was prodigiously versatile, thanks to her years in the French provinces. An intelligent singer who understood how to make the texts count, Crespin also had tremendous success in non-operatic repertory. Her 1963 Decca recording, with conductor Ernest Ansermet, of Berlioz’s Les Nuits d'été and Ravel’s Shéhérazade, is regarded as among the best available. In its original French, her candid and entertaining autobiography is called La vie et l'amour d'une femme, which is also the French translation of Schumann's song cycle Frauenliebe und -leben. Indeed, Lieder by Schumann and Wolf were important parts of her recital repertory, and she brought the same depth of meaning to their German texts as she did to her Wagnerian roles. Of course French, being her native language, evoked a most immediate and intimate response from this singer.

This release marks the launch of an Eloquence series of notable recitals of songs and opera arias by some of the great voices of Decca and Deutsche Grammophon.

“this is beautifully detailed playing throughout. And a fine balance of just that clarity and colour, elegance and lyricism, that I was talking about right at the beginning. That’s why, of these three excellent new recordings, this is the one I would personally buy.” BBC R3 CD Review

Argerich is now approaching her 70th birthday – on the 5th of June this year. One of the releases marking this occasion is a further instalment in the very successful Martha Argerich Collection (already available: Solo Recordings, Concerto Recordings, Chamber Ensemble Recordings) with a set devoted to her complete recordings for the Philips label.

Here we find her in partnership with Stephen Kovacevich and Nelson Freire, with discs of two-piano and piano duet works. Then there are the classic live recordings of the Tchaikovsky First and, above all, the Rachmaninov Third Concertos, with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly; as well as an inimitable Carnival of the Animals (with Freire, Kremer, Maisky and others).

Schubert and Schumann works for cello and piano feature Mischa Maisky.

A 32-page full colour booklet contains photographs and new liner notes by Jed Distler.

‘Juliette Hurel performs them with technical assurance and a fine sense of style, in which sparing use of vibrato is only one of the positive elements.’ Gramophone

‘Transparency, light, colours, tenderness, melancholy: all these come to mind when I try to pin down what I mean by “French impressions”. With its gentle, rich, sensuous and vivid sound, the flute is for me the perfect instrument for this repertoire. I have long wanted to record the works assembled here in the company of my dear friends. I am delighted to present them to you now.’ Juliette Hurel

For her third recording on Zig-Zag Territoires, Juliette Hurel offers us a journey through the French masterpieces for flute of the first half of the twentieth century, including Poulenc’s Flute Sonata, Debussy’s Sonata for flute, viola and harp, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Syrinx, and Fauré’s Sicilienne and Berceuse.