Composer: Claude Debussy
Orchestra: Les Siècles
Conductor: François-Xavier Roth
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalogue: ASM10
Release: 2013
Size: 837 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Première Suite d’Orchestre, L. 50a
01. I. Fête
02. II. Ballet
03. III. Rêve (Orchestrated by Philippe Manoury)
04. IV. Cortège et Bacchanale
La Mer, L. 109
05. I. De l’aube à midi sur la mer
06. II. Jeux de vagues
07. III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer
A first recording for Debussy’s first orchestral Suite: little is known about the period surrounding its composition and the orchestral score was lost until 2008. It was missing the third movement, although it exists in a reduced version for piano four hands. Philippe Manoury has now completed the orchestration, at the request of the Cité de la musique in Paris. Founded in 2003 by the conductor François-Xavier Roth, Les Siècles is a period-instrument orchestra with a huge collection of instruments from all eras at its disposal, and a repertoire to match. Roth and his players have already recorded Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Chabrier, Stravinsky and Dubois with some spectacular results and reviews. Roth has also meticulously recreated the style of playing as taught at the Paris Conservatoire.
La Mer is one of Debussy’s most universally admired orchestral works. By contrast, his Première Suite pour orchestre was lost for more than a century, and came as a complete discovery in 2013 when Les Siècles made the world premiere recording, played on instruments of the period. Now here is a brand-new remastering. An ideal opportunity to view in a fresh light the career of a composer we thought we “knew everything about”