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Tales from the Stave

Documentaries

Music: Classical

Series that tracks down the stories behind the scores of well-known pieces of music

Tales From the Stave: Series 17

Tales from the Stave: Series 17: Debussy: La Mer

26/06/2018

Debussy: La Mer

Series 17

BBC Radio 4 - Tales from the Stave, Series 17, Debussy: La Mer

Frances Fyfield's team explore the astonishing manuscript of Debussy's La Mer.

On the 100th anniversary of Debussy's death, Frances Fyfield is joined by the French conductor Francois Xavier Roth to explore the composer's orchestral masterpiece, La Mer.

Claude Debussy, who died a hundred years ago, has often been described as an impressionist composer. If that label has any validity then it's best applied to his orchestral masterpiece La Mer. Completed in 1905 it's three movements are the composer's attempt to capture the impact of the shifting power of the sea. The minutely detailed and busy manuscripts are held at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and Frances Fyfield and her team including the leading French conductors Francois Xavier Roth and Brian Schembri, along with Professor Barbara Kelly are given the chance to see it by the library's head of music Mathias Auclair.
The astonishing precision of the penmanship and the attention to detail which goes into creating the sweep and impressionistic sensations of waves, wind and spray are alive on every page.

Producer: Tom Alban.

Tales from the Stave: Series 17

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Frances Fyfield tracks down the stories behind the scores of well-known pieces of music

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Debussy: La Mer

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