Debussy: Musique de scène pour les chansons de bilitis

Featuring

Elisabetta Lombardi
Filippo Farinelli
Carole Magnini
Raffaele D'Aniello
Claudia Giottoli
Magadis Ensemble

Claude Debussy

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Composition History

The 1901 stage performance of Debussy's Les Chansons de Bilitis, featuring recitation and mime, was presented to an invited audience to avoid scandal due to the presence of half-naked models.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Pierre Boulez, a prominent composer and conductor, believed that modern music began in 1894 with Debussy's L'après-midi d'un faune.

Composition History

Debussy's solo flute piece, originally titled La Flûte de Pan, was renamed Syrinx by the publisher Jobert to prevent confusion with the first of his three Chansons de Bilitis.

Performer Biography

Elisabetta Lombardi, the mezzo-soprano on this album, was a finalist at the Cardiff 'Singer of the World' contest and has performed internationally.

Compositional Technique

For the stage music of Les Chansons de Bilitis, Debussy chose two flutes and two harps to represent the aulos and kythara, the two main sources of ancient Greek music.

Composition History

The text for Debussy's Chansons de Bilitis comes from a cycle of poems by Pierre Louÿs, which he claimed were translations of texts by a 6th-century BC Greek poetess, making them a literary forgery.

Performer Biography

Claudia Giottoli, the flautist, received enthusiastic reviews for her 2016 album of Giacinto Scelsi's Complete Flute Music, with The Guardian praising her 'dauntless performances'.