Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918), Images pour orchestre (1905 - 1912)

Performed by Lyon National Orchestra, Jun Markl conducting.

00:00 - Gigues
07:36 - Ibéria: Par les rues et par les chemins
14:43 - Ibéria: Les parfums de la nuit
24:01 - Ibéria: Le matin d'un jour de fete
28:32 - Rondes de printemps

It seems that Debussy originally intended the orchestral Images as a third set under that title, for two pianos. He had published a first set of Images for piano in 1905, followed in 1907 by a second series.

Gigues, of the orchestral Images, was the last to be written; it was composed during the years 1909 to 1912 and first performed and published the following year. Ibéria was written in the years 1906 to 1908 and first performed and published in 1910, and Rondes de printemps was composed in 1908 and 1909 and first performed and published in 1910. The whole work is scored for a large orchestra, used by Debussy with his usual sensitivity and care for delicate nuances of orchestral colour. Gigues, originally and aptly known as ‘Gigues tristes’, suggests England, or more properly North Britain. The jig theme, with its echoes of the Northumbrian The Keel Row, introduces the dance gradually, as it takes shape with the entry of the oboe d’amore. Melancholy seems for a moment to be dismissed, but the dance eventually dies down to a murmur.

Ibéria immediately proclaims Spain in its opening section, ‘Par les rues et par les chemins’, with the rhythm of the castanets. To the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla Ibéria seemed to embody Spanish music, to be something much more than a mere character piece. ‘Les parfums de la nuit’, marked ‘Lent et rêveur’, gently evokes the scents of the night, perfumes of the gardens of Spain; and ‘Le matin d’un jour de fête’, marked ‘Dans un rythme de Marche lointaine, alerte et joyeuse’, which follows without a break, brings the world alive again. Spanish dance rhythms are heard, as are characteristic snatches of melody with the sound of a bell, as the holiday approaches.

Rondes de printemps offers a picture of France. Dedicated to Debussy’s wife, it is headed by words from the Tuscan La maggiolata: ‘Vive le Mai, bienvenu soit le Mai / Avec son gonfalon sauvage’ (Long live May, welcome to May / With its wild banner). A snatch of the traditional song Do, do l’enfant, do is heard from the oboe, but it is the song Nous n’irons plus aux bois (We shall no more to the woods), which Debussy had used before in La belle au bois dormant and in Jardins sous la pluie from Estampes, that has a more important part to play in the unfolding texture. The initial reception of Images was mixed, with coolness or hostility from some critics but praise from musicians such as Ravel and Falla. The public had apparently expected a successor to La mer, but Images was something rather different: three pictures in what seemed to contemporaries a new style.