Claude Debussy: La Mer, Nocturnes, Jeux, Marche écossaise, Salut Printemps, Évocation

Featuring

Manuel Rosenthal
Nadine Sautereau
Michel Caron
Orchestre du Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris
Choeur d'enfants de la Radio-Télévision Française
Claude Debussy

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Debussy rejected the term 'impressionist' for his music if it restricted him, preferring the freedom to express himself as a symbolic poet.

Performer Biography

Manuel Rosenthal, the conductor on this album, was one of the rare composition pupils of Maurice Ravel, starting in 1926.

Composer Biography

Claude Debussy, the composer, once claimed that he was destined for a career in the Navy, but chance circumstances led him to music.

Compositional Technique

In the 'Sirènes' movement of Nocturnes, a choir of sixteen female voices sings a single vowel sound, used like an orchestral instrument.

Composition History

Debussy's Jeux, a 'poème dansé', was commissioned by Serge de Diaghilev for the Russian ballet and premiered in Paris in 1913, choreographed by Nijinsky.

Critical Reception

Debussy's Jeux was long considered merely an innocent ballet, but later recognized as a consummate work by figures like Pierre Boulez and French post-serialists.

Compositional Technique

Debussy's La Mer, a symphonic work, abandons classical composition for an organic style of growth, with movements more akin to biology than mathematical structures.