ALICE LILLEY (Soprano)
ASHMOOR BURCH (Baritone)
EXACTLY what Debussy meant when he called this Suite Bergamasque is not quite clear. The word really means, as readers of the Midsummer Night's Dream know, a dance, and it takes its name from Bergamo. Such dances, sometimes with words, appear in old sixteenth -century collections, and violoncellists know it from the one which Piatti wrote for his instrument. He was himself a native of Bergamo.
Debussy's Suite has no more to do with the old dances than a certain old-fashioned flavour which is, of course, blended with his own dainty and delicate freshness. There are four movements-Prelude, Minuet, Moonlight, and Passepied.