德布西：海 Debussy / La Mer - Les Siècles

"Les Siècles orchestra's CD of Debussy's work presents the French composer's famous orchestral masterpiece, La Mer, alongside a previously unrecorded work, La Première Suite d'orchestre. Little is known about the composition of Debussy's Première Suite d'orchestre, other than that the young ""Claude-Achille"" probably commenced it in late 1882, when he was still a student at the Conservatoire, preparing his entry for the Prix de Rome, in which he won the Deuxième Prix in 1883, and Premier Prix, the following year. While the existence of a first symphonic suite was known, all trace had been lost of its manuscripts. Finally located in 2008, the orchestral version was incomplete (the third movement, especially, is missing), and the only surviving complete piece is a piano-duet version. The Cité de la musique subsequently commissioned Philippe Manoury to complete the orchestration using these sources. While certain phrasing is redolent of Massenet, Saint-Saëns and Bizet's Jeux d'enfants, especially the first two pieces (entitled ""Fête"" and ""Ballet""), in the ""Cortège et Bacchanale"" can be heard the solar rapture of the Isle joyeuse and, above all in the third movement, the nocturnal sensuality and mystery inhabiting Debussy's future work."