Debussy: La Mer, Images, Trois Nocturnes, Jeux

Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini, André Previn, Jean Martinon, Michel Plasson

Debussy: La mer; Images for Orchestra; Trois Nocturnes; Jeux

When Claude Debussy (1862-1918) composed his Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune in 1894 nothing quite like it had been heard before. At the time it totally revolutionised music and set a new path for music in the century to come. It was during 1905 that Debussy spent some months residing in Eastbourne in England where he completed one of his greatest works – La mer (The Sea). He had taken refuge in England with his pregnant mistress, Emma Bardac, to escape the scandal caused by the attempted suicide of his then wife. Shortly after returning to Paris Bardac gave birth to Debussy's only child, Claude-Emma, to whom he dedicated the piano original of his Children's Corner. The Ballet score Jeux was Debussy's last orchestral work, being written in 1912 for Diaghilev's Ballet Russes with choreography by Nijinsky. It is a complex piece made up, as it is, of many small musical cells and changes of tempo.