Debussy: Orchestral Works

Featuring

Heinz Holliger
Dirk Altmann
Tatjana Ruhland
Daniel Gauthier
Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR
Claude Debussy

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Composition History

The Rapsodie pour orchestre et saxophone was commissioned by Elisa Hall, the founder of the Boston Orchestral Club, who took up the alto saxophone for her respiratory health.

Composer Biography

Debussy created a literary character named Monsieur Croche, an "anti-dilettante," through whom he initially expressed his critical views on academic traditionalism in various journals and magazines.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Claude Debussy believed that music should be freed from academic bombast and excessive complication, stating that "Complication carried to the extreme is the opposite of art."

Compositional Technique

Debussy's Images pour orchestre, particularly Ibéria, were conceived as a 'series of images' that shifted from an initial two-piano concept to an orchestral work, reflecting his mental 'trip' to the Iberian peninsula.

Critical Reception

Camille Saint-Saëns, a contemporary composer, criticized Debussy's Prélude à L'après-midi d'un faune, claiming it lacked any "expressly musical idea" and cultivated "the lack of style, logic and good judgment."

Interpretation

André Caplet, Debussy's close friend and conductor, performed the Images in a specific order (Rondes de Printemps, Gigues, Ibéria) on March 18, 1922, which is the order used in this recording.

Composition History

Debussy was a slow worker on the Rapsodie pour orchestre et saxophone, taking nearly two decades to complete it, with Jean Roger-Ducasse finishing and orchestrating it after Debussy's death.