Debussy: La Mer, Images Emmanuel Krivine

• Claude Debussy (1862-1918I): La Mer, L. 111a:
• 1 I. De l'aube à midi sur la mer 08:46
• 2 II. Jeux de vagues 07:02
• 3 III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer 08:24
• Images, L. 118a:
• 4 I. Gigues 07:40
• 5 II. Iberia - Par les rues et par les chemins 06:45
• 6 II. Iberia - Les parfums de la nuit 07:52
• 7 II. Iberia - Le matin d'un jour de fête 04:31
• 8 III. Rondes de printemps 07:55
• La Mer, L. 111a:
• 9 III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer (with Fanfare) 02:15
• Total Runtime 01:01:10

Info for Debussy: La Mer, Images

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 tooheavily 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 naïvely imitating it by portraying the elements or the meteorological phenomena that animate them; descriptive music suits neither the flexibility of his music nor his creative temperament. Instead, he invents, he responds to nature through his art, setting up something else in contrast to it. By contrast, “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” (which Debussy originally entitled “Le vent fait danser lamer”) is more dramatic, more affirmative, and therefore less sparkling. Shimmering haze is replaced by powerful impulse. The music sweeps along with a sense of violent ecstasy, reflecting the composer’s lifelonglove of the sea.

La Mer was premiered on 15 October 1905 at the Concerts Lamoureux, conducted by Camille Chevillard. Debussy did later decide to change one short section of its finale, however: there was originallya fanfare in bars 237–244 which he decided was inappropriate, cutting it when he revised the score in 1909 for a new edition. This recording, based on the final version, also includes an excerpt of “Dialogue du ventet de la mer” that does feature the fanfare.

Orchestre national de France
Emmanuel Krivine, conductor

Emmanuel Krivine
is respected as one of the world’s most distinguished conductors whose elegant and colourful interpretations have made him a favourite with leading orchestras and soloists around the world. Regarded as one of the foremost French musicians today, Krivine has held a number of important positions in France and in September 2017 takes up the post of Music Director of the Orchestre National de France, the orchestra’s first French Music Director in over 40 years. He is a passionate educator, who regularly conducts orchestras of young musicians, and in 2004 he created a period-instrument ensemble, La Chambre Philharmonique, now one of the most important groups of its kind.

Emmanuel Krivine has conducted the world’s finest orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw, London Symphony and London Philharmonic orchestras, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. In North America, he has conducted the Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston Symphony, National Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where he made a triumphant debut in 2016/17 and returns in 2017/18. He has worked with the Sydney, Melbourne, NHK and Yomiuri Nippon symphony orchestras. A passion for working with chamber orchestras has led to tours with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and he took up the post of Principal Guest Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 2015.

During the 2017/18 season, Krivine and the Orchestre National de France mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Claude Debussy in 2018 and perform in concerts around France and Switzerland including at the Festival de Pâques, Aix-en-Provence, the Settimane Musicali di Ascona, Les Grands Interprètes Toulouse, working with top soloists including Martha Argerich, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Renaud Capuçon, Francesco Piemontesi and Maxim Vengerov.

La Chambre Philharmonique has gained recognition with its award-winning recordings on Naïve, including most recently a complete set of Beethoven symphonies, awarded Editor’s Choice by Gramophone. His discography also includes recordings with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Maria João Pires, London Symphony Orchestra with Vadim Repin, and the Orchestre National de Lyon, released on labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Erato and Naïve.

Emmanuel Krivine was born in Grenoble, from Russian descent through his father and Polish through his mother, and began his career as a violinist. He was awarded the Premier Prix of the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 16 and became a scholar at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Belgium, studying with Henryk Szeryng and Yehudi Menuhin, and winning many prestigious awards. After a decisive meeting with Karl Böhm in 1965, he increasingly devoted himself to conducting. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France from 1976 until 1983, and then became Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon from 1987 until 2000. He also served as Music Director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes for eleven years between 1984 and 2004, as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg from 2006 to 2014 and more recently as Principal Guest Conductor of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.

Booklet for Debussy: La Mer, Images