Debussy: Nocturnes; Jeux

This is a digitally mastered recording, released on Philips in 1983, and originally released in 1980.

## Details

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

1. **Nocturnes** - 1. Nuages - 7:04
2. 2. Fêtes - 6:13
3. 3. Sirènes - 10:19
4. **Jeux** (Poème Dansé) - 18:48

Total length: 42 minutes

* Orchestra: Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam
* Choir: Women's voices of the Collegium Musicum Amstelodamense
* Chorus Master: Kees de Wijs
* Conductor: Bernard Haitink

Recorded: Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, 5/1979

Illustration: J.A.M Whistler "Nocturne in Blue and Silver" - detail (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Catalogue Numbers:

* CD: 400 023-2
* LP: 9500 674
* Cassette: 7300 769

Digitally mastered from an original analogue recording.

## Liner Notes

Debussy's "Nocturnes" had a fairly complicated evolution. He first mentioned them as "Trois Scènes au Crépuscule" in 1892 in connexion with a projected visit to America. This version was prompted by certain of Henri de Régnier's " Poèmes Anciens et Romanesques," published in 1890, one of which speaks of "the brilliance of angry tambourines and sharp trumpet calls," a phrase that reminds us of "Fêtes." The next stage was signalled by a letter of September 1894 in which Debussy told the great violinist Eugène Ysaÿe that he was composing some "Nocturnes" for violin and orchestra. Given his active concern with the other arts, it is not surprising that he admire the painter Whistler's "Nocturnes: were "an experiment in the different arrangements of a single colour, like a study in grey in painting."

This sounds like "Nuages," first of the "Nocturnes" in their definitive form. This has organum-like parallel harmonies through which lonely, desolate cor anglais phrases wander, unconnected with the cloud music, as if symbolising human isolation. The human voice itself is heard in "Sirènes" to magical effect, but remote and without words; perhaps this is the "wan choir" of another of de Régnier's poems. Between comes "Fêtes," which Debussy spoke of as "a dazzling procession passing through a festive scene and merging with it." This final version of the "Nocturnes" was started during 1897 and completed in December 1899. "Nuages" and "Fêtes" were premièred on December 9, 1900 at the Concerts Lamoureux under Camille Chevillard; the three were first heard together on October 27, 1901.

The "Nocturnes" marked an advance on Debussy's previous orchestral work, "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" (1894), but by the time he composed "Jeux" he occupied a far more radical position. This piece is cast in a continuous, associative form, advancing from one point to the next without recapitulations; as Herbert Eimert's masterly analysis demonstrates, there are 23 thematic motives and these constantly interact and develop. Yet despite this score's complexity it was written at speed, mainly in the first three weeks of August 1912; the manuscript carries several dates, the last being September 2.

This was a commission by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballet Russes, a company which had just given "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" with choreography by the virtuoso dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. In a letter to "Le Matin" Debussy described the work thus: "Diaghilev spoke to me of a scenario devised by Nijinsky, consisting of some kind of subtle transparency, the basis, I agreed, for a ballet. In this scenario there is a park, a tennis court; there is a chance meeting of two girls and a young man seeking a lost ball, a nocturnal, mysterious landscape, and a suggestion of something sinister in the darkening shadows."

"Jeux" was produced in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on May 13, 1913 (later that month Loïe Fuller presented ballets on "Nuages" and "Sirènes"). It had a poor reception, partly because of questionable aspects of Nijinsky's choreography. But the main reason was the music, which, like Debussy's late sonatas and piano études, is highly elusive; it has taken several decades for it to be appreciated at its true worth.

© 1979 *Max Harrison*

## Links

For the playlist of the album, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5asURNWFliY&list=OLAK5uy\_lUHG5dLfvb2J69gQ0vo8qfbaQYWcfyXmQ (Tracks 1-4)

On Decca Classics, they don't have any more info on this album.

For the official Decca Classics website, click here: https://www.deccaclassics.com/en