Debussy: Orchestral Works

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Denève still summons a sensuous bloom in the Prélude, and thanks to his influence, the RSNO proves better than the French at their own game: these are among the most seductive Debussy performances... — Financial Times, 9th June 2012, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 30th Apr 2012
Catalogue No: CHSA5102(2)
Label: Chandos
Length: 2 hours 26 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

August 2012

Editor's Choice

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Debussy: Images, L. 122, CD 118

Work length36:04

$9.00

$11.70

$15.75

Stéphane Denève, Royal Scottish National Orchestra

I. Gigues

Track length7:38

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

II. a. Par les rues et par les chemines

Track length7:26

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

II. b. Les Parfums de la nuit

Track length8:28

$2.00

$2.60

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II. c. Le matin d'un jour de fête

Track length4:28

$1.00

$1.30

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III. Rondes de printemps

Track length8:04

$2.00

$2.60

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Debussy: Jeux - Poème dansé

Work length17:39

$10.00

$13.00

$17.50

Stéphane Denève, Royal Scottish National Orchestra

I. Prelude. The Curtain Rises…

Track length2:12

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Two Timid, Curious Girls…

Track length1:01

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III. One of the Girls Dances…

Track length1:15

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IV. The Young Man Can Be Seen…

Track length1:28

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V. They Dance Together. He Asks…

Track length2:15

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VI. The Young Man Follows…

Track length2:21

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VII. Wrapped Up In Their Dance…

Track length1:41

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VIII. However, the Young Man…

Track length1:39

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IX. Now All Three of Them…

Track length2:52

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X. A Tennis Ball Falls at…

Track length0:55

$1.00

$1.30

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Debussy: Nocturnes, L. 91, CD 98

Work length24:11

$6.00

$7.75

$10.50

Stéphane Denève, Royal Scottish National Orchestra

I. Nuages

Track length7:31

$2.00

$2.60

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II. Fêtes

Track length6:26

$1.00

$1.30

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III. Sirénes

Track length10:14

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Debussy: La Mer, L. 109, CD 111

Work length24:07

$5.00

$6.50

$8.75

Stéphane Denève, Royal Scottish National Orchestra

I. De l'aube à midi sur la mer

Track length8:41

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

II. Jeux de vagues

Track length6:51

$1.00

$1.30

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III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer

Track length8:35

$2.00

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Debussy: Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune, L. 86a, CD 87a

Work length10:22

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Stéphane Denève, Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, L. 86a, CD 87a

Track length10:22

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Debussy: Marche ecossaise sur un theme populare, L. 77, CD 83b

Work length6:40

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Stéphane Denève, Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Debussy: Printemps, L. 61b, CD 68b

Work length15:20

$3.00

$3.90

$5.25

Stéphane Denève, Royal Scottish National Orchestra

I. Très modéré - Animando poco a poco - Chaleureux

Track length9:28

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

II. Modéré - Allegro moderato poco agitato

Track length5:52

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Debussy: L'Enfant prodigue, L. 57, CD 61

Work length7:11

$3.00

$3.90

$5.25

Stéphane Denève, Royal Scottish National Orchestra

I. Prélude

Track length2:53

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Cortège

Track length0:45

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Air de danse

Track length3:33

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Debussy: Berceuse heroique, L. 132b, CD 140b

Work length4:34

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Stéphane Denève, Royal Scottish National Orchestra

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About

Recognised internationally as a conductor of the highest calibre, Stéphane Denève took up the post of Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in 2005, and has since attracted attention from audiences and critics alike. This May, the conductor bids a fond farewell to Scotland and the RSNO with a series of ‘Au Revoir’ concerts, and of course, this disc of orchestral works by Debussy.

After the impact made by the production of Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902, the next orchestral work by Debussy was awaited with intense interest. La Mer did not disappoint, and is today widely considered to have been crucial in its influence on twentieth-century music. After completing this work, Debussy spent no fewer than seven years wrestling with what were to become Images for orchestra. Some critics were puzzled by the work and suggested that Debussy’s talent might have dried out. They were promptly put right in an article by Ravel, who accused them of ‘slowly closing their eyelids before the rising sun amid loud protestations that night is falling’.

With a sultry flute solo, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune opened an astonishing new world for western music. Debussy based this composition on a poem by Mallarmé, who wrote to the composer: ‘I have come from the concert, deeply moved: A miracle! that your illustration of L’Après-midi d’un faune should present no dissonance with my text, other than to venture further, truly, into nostalgia and light…’

The three Nocturnes feature some of Debussy’s most imaginative orchestral writing. In the words of the composer, ‘the title Nocturnes is… not meant to designate the usual form of a nocturne, but rather all the various impressions and the special effects of light that the word would suggest’. Debussy provided descriptions of the three movements. ‘Nuages’, for example, depicts ‘the slow, melancholy procession of the clouds, ending in a grey agony tinged with white’, and also the experience of standing ‘on the Pont de Solférino very late at night. Total silence. The Seine without a ripple, like a tarnished mirror’.

Reviews

9th June 2012

Denève still summons a sensuous bloom in the Prélude, and thanks to his influence, the RSNO proves better than the French at their own game: these are among the most seductive Debussy performances I have heard in years.

August 2012

Denève shows how precise were [Debussy's] choices of instrumental colour and how well-defined and animated the images he was expressing through his music...There is nothing vague about these performances; rather they convey both the dynamism and the delicacy of the music with understanding and stimulating freshness.

August 2012

his meticulous attention to detail is impressive, but what should be a complex, living seascape remains stubbornly one-dimensional...Outwardly brilliant, inwardly dull. Perplexing.

3rd June 2012

his Debussy is his own, muscular yet transparent, colouristic yet atmospheric and mysterious...Even that symphonic warhorse La Mer sounds freshly reimagined by the young Frenchman, whose sense of the music’s ebb and flow, with surging climaxes, is unerring...an ideal way to acquire Debussy’s orchestral masterpieces

22nd June 2012

Denève has clear ideas about the lucidity of Debussy’s scoring and he conducts the orchestra in a way that brings the poetic or visual pictures that inspired the music vividly and freshly to life...All are performed with finesse and with a combination of energy, discretion and colour that give them a luminous quality.

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