Debussy:
- La Mer
- Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
- Jeux – Poème dansé
London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev, conductor
This CD was issued: April 12, 2011
- DSD recording, live at the Barbican September 2009 (La mer), December 2009 (Jeux), May 2010 (Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune).
Valery Gergiev’s recent releases have also included acclaimed recordings of Mahler’s Symphony No 5 and music by Debussy’s French contemporary, Maurice Ravel.
Tracks on this CD are:
- 1. Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune
- 2. La mer: I. De l’aube a midi sur la mer
- 3. La mer: II. Jeux de vagues
- 4. La mer: III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer
- 5. Jeux
One of the 20th century’s most innovative and influential composers, Debussy was a ‘musical impressionist’, although it was a term he disliked. Despite running to little over ten minutes in duration, the sublime “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune” is widely regarded as one of the important and revolutionary of musical works. “La mer” was completed ten years later. Jeux, one of Debussy’s final orchestral works, was written for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes.
CONCERT REVIEWS:
“For his players, this [La Mer] was a virtuoso orchestral showcase of relentless proportions. It seemed to have been meticulously rehearsed, with the instruments precisely blended and mercurially responsive to Gergiev’s tweaks of tempo and mood. This was a characteristic LSO-at-the-Barbican sound: big, bold and glossy in the best sense”
………………………..The Guardian
“Gergiev and the LSO at their best: a sensual, supremely unhurried reading of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après midi d’un faune in which Gareth Davies’s flute shimmered into focus over limpid pools of colour from the harp and strings”
……………………………………..The Independent
“…the disc proves Gergiev to be a fine Debussy conductor, knowing instinctively how much of his large personality he can impose on this music. His is a muscular rather than a fragile view, so there is certitude as well as subtlety even in the subtle textures of the Prélude, while in La Mer, one can almost taste the salt spray. There is a luminous reading of the exotic-erotic Jeux to end.”
……………………………Sunday Times, 27th March 2011 ***
Here is a promotion video for this CD:
Tags: Valery Gergiev, Debussy, La Mer, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune