Debussy: Marche Écossaise

The recent discovery (2008) of the Première Suite d’orchestre for piano, four hands, is a large-scale, sonorous work which reveals Debussy’s interest in constantly evolving form. Derived in part from his incidental music for the Chansons de Bilitis, an evocation of poetic scenes from an ancient pagan world, Six Épigraphes antiques is a colourful work of considerable creative freedom. The Petite Suite includes such well-loved movements as En bateau and Cortège, while the Marche écossaise is heard on this recording in its rare first version.

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’.

For the final volume in his Debussy edition for ONYX, Pascal Roge is joined by his wife Ami in a collection of works for piano 4 hands and for 2 pianos.

Since the release of Volume 1 Preludes I & II in 2005, Roge’s recordings of Debussy have been received with critical acclaim. He is the quintessential interpreter for this repertoire.

The music of three nations – Britain, Spain and France – inspired Debussy’s Images for orchestra, which occupied him from 1905 to 1912.

Originally conceived for two pianos (Images I and II for solo piano are on 8.550253), this third set draws on several folk songs in its outer movements, the tripartite middle movement evoking in musical terms Spanish sights, sounds and fragrances.

Vivid orchestrations by both Debussy and Ravel of short piano pieces likewise embrace contrasting moods and national characters.

Volumes 1 (8570759) and 2 (8570993) in this series have been highly praised.

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.

Dukas considered that with Debussy "ideas generate form". His 'Nocturnes' tap into impressions and light effects, [...] fading into white-tinged grey, and only then movement, jaunty rhythms, sudden bursts of light and glittering dust combining to form a total rhythm (Debussy’s directions). Rosenthal and the Paris Opera orchestra still provide the most faithful rendering of this profusion of rhythm and timbre.