But, first of all, another piano concerto masquerading under a pseudonym (Debussy’s last week was, if you remember, called Fantasie), this one’s called Symphony on a French Mountain Air and it’s by Vincent D’Indy.
Assez lent – Modérément animé (0:00)
Assez modéré, mais sans lenteur (11:36)
Animé (17:58)
Unlike Debussy, D’Indy remained a faithful disciple of his Wagnerite teacher, César Franck. He was also a distinguished teacher both at the Schola Cantorum (which he co-founded) and the Conservatoire, including amongst his pupils many of the later luminaries of French music. Here’s another of his more well-known works, the orchestral variations, Istar.
Istar is a set of orchestral variations based on a rather nice conceit. Istar, the Babylonian goddess of love, descends into the underworld to rescue her dead lover. But, in order to do so she must pass through seven gates and, at each gate, shed an item of either jewellery or clothing, so that by the seventh gate she is naked. To illustrate this D’Indy reverses the usual variation procedure – theme first, followed by a series of variations – and only producing the theme itself in its ‘naked’ form at the end of the piece. Clever, and it works!
D’Indy: Istar
Debussy: Pelléas and Mélisande
With no arias, no vocal high-jinx, no duets and no ensembles, how can it be an opera?? – Debussy’s brilliant anti-opera opera.
Act I 00:00
Act 2 29:57
Act 3 58:05
Act 4 1:21:06
Act 5 2:12:01
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Pontarddulais!
The Art of Listening 