Debussy: La mer, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune & Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole
-
-
Release date: 23 October 2020
LSO0821 | 08222311821221 disc in jewel case
Booklet in English, French & German
SACD incl.stereo | multi-channel 5.1Producer: Nicholas Parker
Engineers: Classic Sound
Recorded January & March 2018, April 2019
Barbican Hall, London , Barbican Hall, London -
Records of the Year 2020
– The TimesRecordings of the Year - Finalist 2020
– Presto Music★★★★★
– Rondo‘A disciple of Pierre Boulez, Roth has the same analytical clarity and ear for sonorities but brings a surging emotional engagement to Debussy’s sea pictures, with gorgeous solo clarinet playing (Chris Richards) in the "dialogue of the wind and the sea" finale. Gareth Davies’s flute is no less charismatic as the protagonist of Debussy’s seminal sketch of a languid, provocative faun, while Roth relishes Ravel's tribute to Spanish music... in a flamboyant account, superlatively played, of Rapsodie espagnole.
Outstanding.’
– Sunday Times
£10.99
François-Xavier Roth
London Symphony Orchestra
A fascination with his Spanish heritage would be a recurring theme in many of Ravel’s creations. Mysterious melodies weave delicately throughout his early work Rapsodie espagnole, punctuated by bursts of Spanish-inspired fanfares and Habanera dance rhythms.
The voluptuous flute opening of the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune immediately conjures a world of luxurious fantasy, weaving through the music’s changing scenes with effortless spontaneity. Every instrument adds something unique, and the whole work appears to float free of form and convention.
In La mer, Debussy tells the story of the eternal odyssey of the ocean. He sails through storm and calm, wind and rain, in music that rises and falls with the rhythms of the sea. The score is so vivid that you can almost smell sea salt and see the crests of the waves.
| Composer | Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel | |
| Conductor | François-Xavier Roth | |
| Performers |
London Symphony Orchestra |
