François Xavier Roth

The practice of performing music on original instruments was once the exclusive domain of early music specialists who sought to revive the characteristic sounds of Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical instruments and ensembles scaled to proper size. The so-called "historically informed movement" eventually expanded into re-creating 19th century music, which yielded some ear-opening performances; but this practice soon began to overlap with modern interpretation and instrumentation, so the actual differences between period and modern strings or winds were minimal.

Traveling to Poland in 1829, Chopin gave his first concert in public just a short time before completing his Concerto in F Minor. He presented this concerto in concert for the first time on February 7, 1830 in front of a small group of special guests: "Experts greatly appreciate this new piece comprised of so many new ideas; it is perhaps counted among the most beautiful of recent works. ” The Concerto in F Minor was not published until 1836, thus becoming known as the “second concerto” compared with the “first” Concerto in E Minor, which he wrote and edited in 1833. October 11, 1830, before leaving for Vienna, Chopin gave a farewell concert at the National Theater in Varsovie during which he performed Concerto in E Minor and The Polish Fantasy.

La Mer is one of Debussy's most universally admired orchestral works. By contrast, his Première Suite pour orchestre was lost for more than a century, and came as a complete discovery in 2013 when Les Siècles made the world premiere recording, played on instruments of the period. Now here is a brand-new remastering. An ideal opportunity to view in a fresh light the career of a composer we thought we ‘knew everything about’.