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Track(s) taken from SIGCD2092

L'isle joyeuse, L109

composer
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
1903/4; first performed by Ricardo Viñes in February 1905
arranger
Bernardino Molinari (1880-1952)

Philharmonia Orchestra, Geoffrey Simon (conductor)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: January 1990
St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Tim Handley
Engineered by Nicholas Parker
Release date: March 2012
Total duration: 6 minutes 16 seconds
 

Debussy wrote this exuberant piano rhapsody in 1904 while on Jersey, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of France. Its principal source of inspiration was a painting by Watteau entitled Embarquement pour Cythère (Embarkation for the Island of Cythera). The sparkling sensuality of the music, especially as orchestrated by Debussy’s friend Bernardino Molinari to the composer’s indications, brings it into the same sound world as La mer, in which it could almost occupy a place as an extra movement.

from notes by Edward Johnson © 2019

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