Debussy, Fauré & Ravel: Works for Piano & Orchestra

Featuring

Jac van Steen
Valerie Tryon
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Claude Debussy
Gabriel Fauré
Maurice Ravel

Did you know?

1/7

Composition History

Ravel began his Piano Concerto in G major in 1929, influenced by the jazz and Negro spirituals he encountered during his 1928 tour of North America.

Notable Performances

Debussy's Fantaisie was not premiered until November 1919, a year and a half after his death, because he forbade its performance or publication after withdrawing it from its intended 1890 premiere.

Composition History

Fauré's Ballade for solo piano, Op. 19, was published in 1877 and dedicated to Saint-Saëns; it later became better known in its orchestral version from 1881, possibly after Franz Liszt suggested adding accompaniment.

Composition History

Debussy began his Fantaisie for piano and orchestra in October 1889, at a time when French composers favored shorter works over large-scale piano concertos.

Performer Biography

Valerie Tryon, the pianist, began her concert career as a child, broadcasting for the BBC before she was twelve, and was one of the youngest students admitted to the Royal Academy of Music.

Critical Reception

One critic, after the 1919 premiere of Debussy's Fantaisie, suggested the work marked a path Debussy should have continued, as it was written "before Debussy contracted the whole-tone madness."

Interpretation

Valerie Tryon, the pianist on this recording, studied with Jacques Février, who had direct insights into Ravel's intentions for his works, including the Piano Concerto in G major.