Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Entrusted to the luminous artistry of Isabelle Faust and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Stravinsky’s Violin concerto blooms at the centre of this orchestral bouquet, where the piercing pleasures and modernity of Chabrier play prelude to the captivating and sometimes troubling visions of a Debussy at the height of his art.
A brilliant and refined score premiered five years before the Suite pastoral, Chabrier’s España offers a tantalizing yet broadly imaginary tableau of Spain, in which the petulance of the Aragonese Jota sidles up to the sensuality of the Andalusian Malagueña. "At the end, the people must jump up and embrace one another!" declared the composer. But with no sacrifice of the picturesque: the modernity of orchestral colours drew the admiration of Falla and Mahler. Spain remains the focus with Debussy’s Images, the second of which, Iberia, continues the evocation of popular festivities and nocturnal enchantments, albeit with troubling reflections. Gigues and Rondes de printemps radiate with the paradoxical modernity, tinged at times with a hint of archaism, of the mature Debussy, whose ever-elegant audacity would so subjugate Ravel. On a par with those of Schoenberg, Berg, Prokofiev and Bartók, Stravinsky’s virtuoso violin concerto exploits all the possibilities of the instrument, delivering a tale in which an almost "savage" frenzy, often associated with the author of Le Sacre, alternates with moments of poignant nostalgia.
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Musical director Mikko Franck
Director Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Violin Isabelle Faust
Emmanuel Chabrier
Suite pastorale
Igor Stravinsky
Concerto for violin in D major
Emmanuel Chabrier
España
Claude Debussy
Images