Debussy: L'Enfant prodigue: Cortege et Air de danse

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’.

"The great thing about Beecham’s conducting of such pieces as the dances from Samson and Delilah is that he enjoyed himself so enormously and, of course, he had an unbounded ability to make his players enjoy themselves too. Beecham’s genius for dealing with music of this sort is greatly in evidence in this collection and the record provides the most delightful relaxation." Gramophone Magazine

EMI MASTERS celebrates the full glory of the greatest performances from the world's greatest catalogue of recorded music. Digitally remastered at Abbey Road Studios direct from the original master tapes, these classic recordings emerge with unparalleled immediacy. You will be left in no doubt that you are in the presence of legendary musicians and ageless interpretations.

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.

If it is true that the end of Romanticism coincided with the invention of electric light, then we can date this to 1880 -- the year in which Thomas Alva Edison patented the light bulb. At around this time, a brilliant student at the Paris Conservatoire, Claude Debussy, decided to embark upon a composing career that would soon 'illuminate' the history of music.

Debussy's output is roughly divided into three periods, each of which is represented by one of the three discs in this set. Focusing solely on his works for piano duo, the collection effectively represents a vantage point from which to analyse his stylistic development, since it touches on both Debussy's piano and orchestral writing simultaneously: as well as original keyboard works (Lindaraja is one example, the composer's first work inspired by Spain), there are piano pieces arranged for orchestra, vice-versa compositions (Prélude a l'après-midi d'un faune, for instance) and music that was clearly intended for the orchestra or for specific ensembles (one example is Le triomphe de Bacchus, for which the orchestration was never completed).

Performing these works are two of Italy's most celebrated pianists, Massimiliano Damerini and Marco Rapetti. Their accomplished readings highlight the unique relationship that exists between piano and orchestra -- the former can be seen as a monochromatic version of the latter, with the latter essentially describing the former in polychromatic terms -- and, at the same time, draw the listener's attention towards an important area of 19th-century music-making: namely piano transcriptions' vital role in making operatic and symphonic repertoire available to all.

Other information:

- The only really complete edition of Debussy's output for piano duo! Recorded in 2012, Carrara, Italy.

- This set not only contains the original works for piano 4-hands or 2 pianos (such as Petite Suite, En blanc et noir) but also the composer's transcriptions of orchestral works (such as the famous Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faun, La Mer). Several pieces receive their CD premiere in this set (the Symphony).

- Debussy, a skilled pianist himself, never made a dry piano reduction of his orchestral works, but took pains to create pianistic masterworks, able to stand on its own.

- Two of Italy's best pianists join forces in this beautiful and inspired performance of Debussy's output for piano duo: Massimiliano Damerini and Marco Rapetti.

- Includes comprehensive booklet notes and artist biographies.