Debussy began composing La Mer in 1904, in Burgundy, but as he wrote to fellow composer André Messager, his memories of the sea were “worth more than a reality whose charm generally weighs too heavily on the imagination”. He continued to work on the score, however, while staying in Jersey, and then in Dieppe. For Debussy, even less than for the Beethoven of the “Pastoral” Symphony, writing about nature does not mean naïvelyimitating it by portraying the elements or the meteorological phenomena that animate them; descriptive music suits neither the flexibility of his music nor his cre... [Read More]
Leopold Stokowski's La Mer is one of his finest recordings. Swiftly moving like an ocean current, it also has a sonic voluptuousness that no other performance can match. How he did it was anyone's guess, and even though he indulges in his usual fondness for re-orchestration here and there (particularly the tam-tam crescendo at the very end) it all works beautifully. The couplings include Stokowski's own arrangement of Debussy's piano piece The Engulfed Cathedral--one of his best transcriptions. The Ravel Suite is just as lovely, though here the extra shout from the chorus at the very end reall... [Read More]
ü These 13CDs, containing Munch’s entire Warner Classics catalogue, comprise recordings made between i) 1935 and 1949 (CD7-13) and ii) 1965 and 1968 ((the year of the conductor’s death, CD1-6). ü The repertoire on the 13 CDs is wide-ranging – from the Baroque era to the mid-20th century (Bach and Vivaldi to Dutilleux and Jolivet) and from core repertoire to rarities. ü The 78 rpm era recordings find here their first original complete edition and they include numerous official premieres on CD. ü Roussel’s Suite in F recoreded for Erato is released here for the first time on CD ü Th... [Read More]
A soirée is in full swing, the assembled company enjoying itself immensely and dancing a polonaise. Only one of the guests stands apart, Eugene Onegin, the opera s hero or, rather, the anti-hero of an anti-opera that Tchaikovsky wisely described not as an opera at all but as a series of Lyric Scenes . Here the golden rules of the theatre seem to have been cast aside in favour of a bold attempt to bring Pushkin s Eugene Onegin to life on the operatic stage, an attempt all the more remarkable in that the Russian poet s verse novel has always been regarded as a national treasure. But Tchaikovsky... [Read More]
A musician of uncommon versatility, Gunnar Idenstam happily acknowledges the influences of Swedish folk music and dance as well as the symphonic rock of the 1970s. But whether he collaborates with Sami traditional singers (as on Songs for Jukkasjärvi, BIS-1868) or folk musicians (as on Folkjul: A Swedish Folk Christmas, BIS-5031), Idenstam is firmly grounded in the virtuosic French organ tradition which he studied in France, with the legendary Marie-Claire Alain. It was during his time in Paris that he first started dreaming of transferring Debussys La Mer to his own instrument to perform thi... [Read More]
Debussy: La Mer / Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole - Charles Munch, Boston Symphony (A Basic Library Selection / Music America Loves Best) RCA Victrola-1041 Stereo
The breathtaking composition of this woodblock print, said to have inspired Debussy_s La Mer (The Sea) and Rilke_s Der Berg (The Mountain), ensures its reputation as an icon of world art. Hokusai cleverly played with
© 10Toply.com - all rights reserved - Sitemap 10Toply.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com