B2 Debussy’s Sea

ABOUT THE CONCERT

Debussy’s Petite Suite belongs to the composer’s early works and radiates a typically French lightness and ease that can be found in the works of Debussy’s generationally older contemporaries Delibes, Chabrier and Fauré.

The Piano Concerto for left-hand piano and orchestra by Maurice Ravel was written between 1929 and 1930 for the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein. He had lost his right hand in the First World War, but he was not going to accept his handicap. He began to arrange classical piano compositions himself, and at the same time approached contemporary composers to compose new works for him. The concerto is characterized by a penetrating jazz influence and a piano part that is written in such a demanding and virtuosic manner that it is almost impossible to tell that it is played with only one hand.

Ravel’s Barque on the Ocean is originally the third movement of his piano cycle Mirrors and was written, like Debussy’s The Sea, at the very beginning of the 20th century. The composer arranged it for orchestra in 1906, but the performance did not satisfy him, so the manuscript of the orchestral version remained in the composer’s archive until his death in 1937. Debussy’s The Sea was written between 1903 and 1905 and features three symphonic sketches – colourful impressionistic paintings that capture the sea from its calm and majestic form to its playful waves and wind-tossed swells.

PROGRAM

Claude Debussy
Petite Suite (orch. Henri Büsser)

Maurice Ravel
Concerto for piano left hand and orchestra in D major

Maurice Ravel
Barque on the Ocean

Claude Debussy
The Sea, three symphonic sketches for orchestra

 THE CAST

Alim Beisembayev – piano
Janáček philharmonic Ostrava
Gábor Káli – conductor