Debussy: Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien

This recording of a broadcast performance by North West German Radio of Debussy’s The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian comes from 1952. It features one of the greatest conductors of the time, Ernest Ansermet, conducting the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Cologne Radio Choir, and leading soloists from the period.

The legendary Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet had been a friend of Claude Debussy, and was highly respected for his readings of composer’s works. He was the first to conduct Debussy’s poetic drama “Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien” in Germany, at the Wallraffplatz broadcasting studios in Cologne on May 5, 1952. At its Paris premiere in 1911, the piece had provoked a regular scandal with its mixture of unabashed eroticism and religious ecstasy. North West German Radio commissioned a German translation for the broadcast which was used in this recording. All the soloists were female, with internationally acclaimed soprano Anny Schlemm joined by Margot Guilleaume, Anni Bernards and Martha Deisen.

This generous disc brings together all of Pierre Monteux’s Debussy recordings for Decca and Philips. Encompassing some of Debussy’s major orchestral works, these performances have a fluidity and atmosphere about them in recordings that have worn their years lightly. Monteux omits ‘Sirènes’ in his recording of the Nocturnes – a practice not atypical of recordings of the work in the 1950s and 1960s.

This volume of Debussy’s dramatic works and ballet music is dedicated, by and large, to ‘rarities’ by the composer. Few of Debussy’s works have divided critical opinion more than Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien, banned as it was by the Archbishop of Paris six days before its premiere. The beautiful, rarefied Six Épigraphes Antiques were orchestrated by Ernest Ansermet himself and both the Egyptian-based Khamma and La Boîte à joujoux, a ballet based on the secret life of toys, are very rare indeed. Trifle though it might be, the Marche écossaise receives its first release on CD – significant, given the conductor recorded it only once.

The fourth volume in Naxos’s highly praised series of Debussy’s Orchestral Works presents music drawn from three of his theatrical ventures and from one of his Prix de Rome entries.

The prelude, fanfares and four symphonic fragments from Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien were taken for concert performance from Debussy’s incidental music for Gabriele D’Annunzio’s scandalous mystery play.

While rarely heard today, the ‘danced legend’ Khamma, set in ancient Egypt, and incidental music for Shakespeare’s King Lear, provide suitably atmospheric music, as do the Cortège et air de danse from The Prodigal Son, the cantata which gained Debussy the Prix de Rome in 1884.

This work has a dramatic mix of opera, oratorio, ballet and spoken theatre. It was first performed in 1911 and originally almost 4 hours long. The original text was by Gabriele d’Annuncio and in 2005 Cambreling commissioned Mosebach to write a new version.

This collection contains all Debussy’s works for orchestra as well as many orchestral arrangements of his piano music. Together these display a rich panorama of Debussian sound and a remarkable insight into the composer. Established arrangements by Debussy’s contemporaries, including Ravel and Caplet, are complemented by more recent arrangements from composers such as Colin Matthews and Robin Holloway. The conductor Jun Märkl believes that Debussy ‘set up a model of orchestration for the rest of the twentieth century’ and it is with this conviction that he draws from the Orchestre National de Lyon such ‘world-class playing’ (American Record Guide).

Following our successful Mahler and Chopin editions, this is a joint Deutsche Grammophon/Decca Classics unlimited edition with benchmark Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Classics recordings.

All his important works: orchestral (with Pierre Boulez); piano (with Krystian Zimerman, Jean-Yves Thibaudet); opera (Claudio Abbado’s Pelléas et Mélisande); mélodies (with Véronique Dietschy); chamber music (with Arthur Grumiaux, Melos Quartet, Lynn Harrell.

Cap box with new essays and illustrations.