Composer of the Week: Debussy

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Claude Debussy (1862-1918): An Altered Conscience

An Altered Conscience

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Claude Debussy (1862-1918), An Altered Conscience

Donald Macleod sees how Debussy's mid-life crisis triggers a tragic turn of events.

Donald Macleod finds Debussy having a mid-life crisis. He'd achieved the fame he'd craved, but his notebooks reveal the inner turmoil of his thoughts.

Heading in to his forties Debussy was on the brink of one of the biggest upheavals in his life. He felt oppressed by the fame he'd achieved, and as he struggled to complete La mer, his notebooks reveal the inner turmoil of his thoughts. 

One of the 20th century's most original minds, the French composer Claude Debussy has had a profound influence on the course of music. Born in 1862, his precocious talent gained him admittance to the prestigious Paris Conservatoire as a ten-year-old, one of the youngest pupils in the piano class. There were soon indications of his independence of mind. His student years are littered with reports which, while recognising his gifts also found him to be careless and scatterbrained. Debussy found it difficult to focus on his lessons because he felt frustrated with the rules of composition he was told to follow. He wanted to express himself differently, and if he broke the rules to achieve that, well, in his view, so be it.

This week Donald Macleod begins his stories at the point in Debussy's life where, the young man has dispensed with institutional restrictions. He was free to choose his own path. No more rules, no more regulations. There were still some practical considerations he would have to factor in to his plans. Having fulfilled, for the main, the requirements of the Prix de Rome, he needed to make a professional name for himself, and most urgently, earn some money! All in all, it would prove to be a difficult decade.

When in 1902 Debussy met the then married Emma Bardac, it was to set off a chain of events that would lead to public scandal and tragedy. 

La mer 
III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer  
Berlin Philharmonic 
Simon Rattle, director 

Estampes: No. 1. Pagodes    
Walter Gieseking, piano 

Le diable dans le beffroi, completed and orchestrated by Robert Orledge (excerpt) 
Allez, il faut nous préparer 
Un…deux…trois… (chorus) 
Les diable! C’est le Diable!... 
Le Diable mime 
Michael Dries, bell ringer, bass  
Virgil Hartinger, Jean, bell ringer’s son, tenor 
Eugene Villanueva, baritone, Burgomaster 
Göttingen Symphony Orchestra 
St Jacobi Chamber Choir, Göttingen 
Christoph-Mathias Mueller, conductor 

Masques 
Steven Osborne, piano 

Fantaisie for piano and orchestra 
I: Andante ma non troppo
Martha Argerich, piano 
Staatskapelle Berlin
Daniel Barenboim, conductor 			

Pelléas et Mélisande Act 5  (excerpt) 
Ou est-tu Mélisande….. to the finale 
Vannina Santoni, soprano, Mélisande
Alexandre Duhamel, baritone, Golaud 
Jean Teitgen, bass, Arkel 
Les Siècles
François-Xavier Roth, conductor 

La mer 
III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer  		
Berlin Philharmonic 
Simon Rattle, director 

Producer: Johannah Smith

Composer of the Week: Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Claude Debussy.

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Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

An Altered Conscience

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