Debussy: Orchestral Works - Deneve, Royal Scottish National Orchestra (2012)

Recognised internationally as a conductor of the highest calibre, Stéphane Denève took up the post of Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in 2005, and has since attracted attention from audiences and critics alike. This May, the conductor bids a fond farewell to Scotland and the RSNO with a series of ‘Au Revoir’ concerts, and of course, this disc of orchestral works by Debussy.

After the impact made by the production of Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902, the next orchestral work by Debussy was awaited with intense interest. La Mer did not disappoint, and is today widely considered to have been crucial in its influence on twentieth-century music. After completing this work, Debussy spent no fewer than seven years wrestling with what were to become Images for orchestra. Some critics were puzzled by the work and suggested that Debussy’s talent might have dried out. They were promptly put right in an article by Ravel, who accused them of ‘slowly closing their eyelids before the rising sun amid loud protestations that night is falling’.

With a sultry flute solo, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune opened an astonishing new world for western music. Debussy based this composition on a poem by Mallarmé, who wrote to the composer: ‘I have come from the concert, deeply moved: A miracle! that your illustration of L’Après-midi d’un faune should present no dissonance with my text, other than to venture further, truly, into nostalgia and light…’

The three Nocturnes feature some of Debussy’s most imaginative orchestral writing. In the words of the composer, ‘the title Nocturnes is… not meant to designate the usual form of a nocturne, but rather all the various impressions and the special effects of light that the word would suggest’. Debussy provided descriptions of the three movements. ‘Nuages’, for example, depicts ‘the slow, melancholy procession of the clouds, ending in a grey agony tinged with white’, and also the experience of standing ‘on the Pont de Solférino very late at night. Total silence. The Seine without a ripple, like a tarnished mirror’.

Composer: Claude Debussy
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Women Of The Royal Scottish National Orchestra Chorus

Reviews: This is Debussy in the great French tradition, the sort of playing and conducting that used to be associated with national schools of performance. Of course, Stéphane Denève comes from the right school, but you have to care enough about it to cultivate the aesthetic, and for much of the 20th century French musical institutions did their best to trash everything that was great in the pre-War style. The situation with orchestras was even worse. Not that French orchestras were great in a technical sense; largely they were not, but they were distinctive in a way that was particularly well suited to French repertoire, and they contained superb individual players. This is why orchestras with a similar sonority, such as the Czech Philharmonic, with lean strings and prominent, colorful winds, often with a touch of tangy vibrato in the brass, play the music so well to this day.

What Denève has done is recreate this sonority in his Debussy performances, and the result is marvelous. This is no mean feat. Today’s orchestras do not naturally take to this style of playing, but this less blended, more individual approach was in fact the “authentic” sound of the late 19th and early 20th century. Debussy orchestrates in layers, and however fuzzy or “impressionistic” the resultant sonority, these layers should remain distinct. This means that woodwind timbres must often balance the strings, as they do in this performance of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, with tellingly supple results. Jeux, that miracle of slithery half-tints and suggestions, really speaks in this performance; it becomes a genuine dance drama rather than a mere abstraction.

Much of Denève’s success also stems from his consistently lively, flowing tempo choices. These Nuages float across the sky with a welcome sense of purpose and emotional point. The concentration of the Scottish wind players here, and throughout the three Images, is particularly impressive. Iberia’s three movements cohere as a single span—clearly Debussy’s intention, but something we seldom actually hear either in concert or on disc. And as for La Mer, well, it’s just as exciting as hell. Try the closing bars in the sample below. The art of playing loud while retaining the integrity of Debussy’s carefully balanced textures is another of those virtually lost arts happily recaptured here.

Chandos has provided terrific SACD multichannel sonics for this production, which may well be headed straight for reference status. A major achievement.

Tracklisting:

1. Printemps by Claude Debussy
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1887; France
Date of Recording: 10/2011 & 02/2012
Venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Length: 15 Minutes 12 Secs.

2. Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune by Claude Debussy
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1892-1894; France
Date of Recording: 10/2011 & 02/2012
Venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Length: 10 Minutes 14 Secs.

3. Nocturnes (3) for Orchestra by Claude Debussy
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Women Of The Royal Scottish National Orchestra Chorus
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1897-1899; France
Date of Recording: 10/2011 & 02/2012
Venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Length: 24 Minutes 13 Secs.

4. La mer by Claude Debussy
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1903-1905; France
Date of Recording: 10/2011 & 02/2012
Venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Length: 23 Minutes 58 Secs.

5. L'enfant prodigue: Cortège et Air de danse by Claude Debussy
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1884/1908; France
Date of Recording: 10/2011 & 02/2012
Venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Length: 3 Minutes 25 Secs.

6. L'enfant prodigue: Cortège by Claude Debussy
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1884/1908; France
Date of Recording: 10/2011 & 02/2012
Venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Length: 0 Minutes 45 Secs.

7. L'enfant prodigue: Air de danse by Claude Debussy
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1884/1908; France
Date of Recording: 10/2011 & 02/2012
Venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Length: 2 Minutes 50 Secs.

8. Jeux by Claude Debussy
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1912-1913; France
Date of Recording: 10/2011 & 02/2012
Venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Length: 17 Minutes 32 Secs.

9. Images for Orchestra by Claude Debussy
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1905-1912; France
Date of Recording: 10/2011 & 02/2012
Venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Length: 35 Minutes 55 Secs.

10. Marche écossaise sur un thème populaire by Claude Debussy
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1891; France
Date of Recording: 10/2011 & 02/2012
Venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Length: 6 Minutes 32 Secs.

11. Berceuse heroïque by Claude Debussy
Conductor: Stéphane Denève
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1914; France
Date of Recording: 10/2011 & 02/2012
Venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Length: 4 Minutes 34 Secs.




Thanks to the original releaser