La Mer

Stars And Fishes (2004). The Mediterranean is a wonderful symbol of warmth, and it's the inspiration behind this disc, masterminded by producers Marco Bussian and Jean-Charles Vandermynsbrugge. They provide the music and beats, which shimmer in a lovely heat haze, and bring in vocalists to add some magical singing. Often it works well, as with Ozlem Cetin's "Le Reve Est Mort," or "Conmigo," with Sol Ruiz de Galarreta providing the vocal cords. At times, however, it can veer perilously close to the murky terrain of lounge music, as on "Cosmic Lullaby," where even Clair Dietrich's singing can't rescue something mediocre. However, that's the exception to the rule: the vast majority of this disc positively glows and sticks like a burr in the mind…

When the French court moved into the magnificent residence of Versailles on May 6, 1682, France was at the zenith of its power. The king, no longer a young man in his mid-forties by the standards of the time, was increasingly coming under the influence of Madame de Maintenon, who had risen from the position of governess to his illegitimate children to become the Sun King's maitresse and later wife. The pious lady brought the king back into the arms of the church, which was not without influence on the musical entertainment of his majesty. In addition to chamber music, which Louis always appreciated, sacred cantatas in French were now in demand for the court's devotions.

This marks the first release with Robin Ticciati leading the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, and it makes the requisite splash. There's a world premiere: even if you're not on board with the trend of enlarging the repertory through arrangements of works that are perfectly good in their original form, you will likely be seduced by mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozená's ravishing reading of Debussy's voice-and-piano Ariettes oubliées, inventively arranged by Brett Dean. There's a little-known work: the opening one, Fauré's Prelude to Pénélope (a sparsely performed opera, with a slightly less sparsely performed prelude) is a lush and beautifully controlled arc. Controlled and detailed are two words that come to mind for Ticciati's interpretation of La mer, the warhorse work on the program; it may seem a bit deliberate, but there are many hues in his performance. The two Debussy works are balanced by two of Fauré's: the fourth work is the suite from Fauré's incidental music to Pélleas et Mélisande (in Charles Koechlin's version), also deliberate and lush. Linn recorded the performance in Berlin's Jesus Christus Kirche, which allows the full spectrum of orchestral colors to come through. Worth the money for Kozená fans for her turn alone, and a fine French program for all.

Debussy began composing La Mer in 1904, in Burgundy, but as he wrote to fellow composer André Messager, his memories of the sea were “worth more than a reality whose charm generally weighs too heavily on the imagination”. He continued to work on the score, however, while staying in Jersey, and then in Dieppe. For Debussy, even less than for the Beethoven of the “Pastoral” Symphony, writing about nature does not mean naïvelyimitating it by portraying the elements or the meteorological phenomena that animate them; descriptive music suits neither the flexibility of his music nor his creative temperament. Instead, he invents, he responds to nature through his art, setting up something else in contrast to it.

There hasn't exactly been a flood of recordings marking the centenary of Debussy's death in 1918, but here's a fitting observance from Pablo Heras-Casado, featuring a Philharmonia Orchestra that's absolutely at the top of its game and able to follow the Spanish conductor through his low-volume but intense Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.

The New York Philharmonic and its conductor, Jaap van Zweden, continue the revered institution's partnership with Decca Gold with the release of their latest recording, featuring Debussy's orchestral masterpiece La Mer and Stravinsky s groundbreaking Le Sacre du printemps. Both pieces were performed and recorded live in 2018 in the opening weeks of van Zweden's tenure as the New York Philharmonic s Music Director.

From the opening notes of “Brouillards,” it’s clear why Alexander Melnikov has chosen one of his own historic pianos for Debussy’s second volume of Préludes. His French Erard piano, from around 1885, possesses a chiming bass, a delicate yet resonant upper register, and a warm middle. It’s ideal for music that so often requires a fine brushstroke. Melnikov obliges, playing with exquisite restraint, control, and voicing as he whisks us to sun-drenched, humid India, the world of illustrator Arthur Rackham’s fairies and to a firework display, full of brilliant, nervous tension. Melnikov is joined by Olga Pashchenko for a thrilling performance of Debussy’s arrangement for four hands of his orchestral suite La Mer.

Sergiu Celibidache's penchant for meticulous orchestral balances and spacious tempi threatens to embalm Iberia's swaggering rhythms. On the other hand, the late conductor's patient, sumptuous detailing makes for one of the most riveting (and longest) versions of La Mer on disc. Every Debussy lover should try to hear it.