2012 marks the 150th anniversary of Debussy’s birth,
and it also sees Stéphane Denève’s final year as music director
the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. As a double commemoration,
Denève and his orchestra have been performing Debussy’s major
orchestral works in concert this season, and as a parting gift
he leaves us this recording. It’s a present worth receiving,
something which enshrines his love of the music but also stands
as testament to the outstanding work he has done with the RSNO
over the last seven years. It may well turn out to be one of
the finest releases in this Debussy year, and possibly the finest
in a considerably longer period.
Denève has long been a passionate advocate for Debussy. He writes
in the liner-notes about the transformational effect of the
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, which he first heard
as a young man, something which sparked a love of this music
which he still feels. That love comes out in every moment of
this recording. The set comes across as a labour of love, a
summation of Denève’s current thinking on Debussy and a document
that, in my view, stands comparison with many more famous or
well established Debussy teams out there. One of the things
he does rather successfully, to my mind, is to challenge some
established views about the composer. More often than not, Debussy’s
music is seen as impressionistic (a term the composer hated),
shimmering and ill-defined. The nebulous half-light is there
in places and is used to outstanding effect at times, but Denève
rejects any idea that with this must come poor definition or
blended homogeneity. “Everything must be heard”, he writes,
and one of his achievements here is to combine a forensic exploration
of the notes in all their detail with a convincing architectural
picture that gives the music coherence and a sense of trajectory.
That openness and clarity are apparent right from the start
of Images as the flute, clarinet, harp and celesta
all stand out with razor-sharp clarity against the backdrop
of icy strings. Denève doesn’t reject the post-Romantic sound-world
in which the composer moves, however, and creates a sense of
heady opulence that would please any sensualist. The opening
of Ibéria then explodes out of the speakers with all
the brash confidence of a Mediterranean fiesta, reminding us
that Debussy is as good at evoking sun-drenched clarity as he
is at moonlit mystery. As if to prove this, Les Parfums
de la Nuit has a languid, almost decadent feel but each
instrumental voice is clear and potent, relishing its due place
in the overall scheme.
A similar grasp of compelling contrast comes across in the Nocturnes.
The gently ambling clouds of Nuages sound almost anaemic
but hugely atmospheric in the orchestra, and there is something
wonderfully suggestive about the cor anglais solo towards the
end. After this Fêtes is perky, rhythmic and celebratory,
crowned by triumphant brass cadences, and the effect of the
approach of the distant band is brilliantly played and paced.
The world of the Sirens, too, is properly seductive, the ladies
of the RSNO Chorus sliding evocatively through their chromatic
lines and placed at just the right distance from the orchestra.
Denève is a master of the big picture as well as of the detailed
components of this music. In fact, the image that kept coming
to my mind when listening to these discs was of the conductor
as an artist working on a canvas, crafting something organic
which is taking shape before the listener rather than setting
down something concrete and complete. Nowhere is this more true
than in La Mer. The shading of the dynamic range is
done in the way that a painter evokes light; a phrase will be
highlighted or faded back with lightning precision, like a snatch
of sunlight catching the glint of a wave. There is also a tremendous
sense of movement and organic progress, a love of the momentary
without losing sight of the overall scope of the music. The
mid-day climax to the first movement, when it comes, is electrifying,
all the more so because it has been so well prepared. The Dialogue
captures a sense of yearning as well as of conflict, given a
sense of almost transcendent resolution (around the 4:34 mark)
then growing to a grandiose conclusion which sets the seal on
the whole work. In fact, you always feel that Denève is bringing
out the sense of structure inherent in the music rather than
imposing something on it. It’s a sign of his success that this
process never feels didactic but organic and developmental.
Even (or especially) in the Prélude, the music seems
to unwind gently, lazily, as if hanging in midair, but even
here the recurrence of the languid flute theme gives the music
shape, making a virtue out of recurrence.
Perhaps the biggest revelation of the set is Jeux.
Not for Denève the idea that this music is cerebral and abstract.
He reminds us that it was written as a ballet for Diaghilev,
and as if to underline this the notes give us detailed descriptions
of each scene, track by track, as the music unfolds. Denève
brings out the descriptive demands of each scene, but more important
than this is the sense of scarcely concealed sexual tension
that permeates the musical atmosphere: after all, it’s basically
a depiction of a ménage à trois, and the music rises
inexorably to the climax (literally!) of the triple kiss. Debussy’s
music is at its most kaleidoscopic in this work, themes darting
briefly across the soundscape before giving way to others, but
they never appear tokenistically: instead Denève uses each one
like a painter, again, to create a moving image that shimmers
and glides before our ears.
What fantastic colours Denève has at his disposal! Under his
directorship the RSNO have gone from strength to strength and
it is no exaggeration to say that they can now hold their own
in the company of the great orchestras of Europe. With this
conductor they have become particularly highly praised in French
music and they showcase this new expertise at every opportunity
in this disc. The strings are delicate and suggestive, the brass
evocative and the percussion brilliantly colourful. The winds,
in particular, are especially pungent, adding a touch of perfume
to everything they touch. It’s extraordinary just how good the
orchestra now is at this sort of repertoire, and it will be
interesting to see in what direction they go after Denève. Richard
Morrison of The Times once described the RSNO as “the
best French orchestra north of Calais”. These discs will show
you why.
The less substantial works on the set are just as stylishly
played. The Marche écossaise is based on a genuine
Scottish ancestral melody, a melody we were treated to in its
entirety when the
orchestra opened their season with this work. You can sense
the tune’s Scottish origin, not least through its rhythm, but
Debussy very much makes it his own and it’s an interesting,
Gallicised hybrid of styles. Printemps is a youthful
work depicting the “laborious birth” of Spring, but it contains
lots of suggestions of the composer’s later work, both in its
colour and its texture. It’s well shaped and attractively played
here, especially by the leaping horns in the second section,
though the ending is surprisingly conventional for Debussy.
The movements from L’Enfant Prodigue both set evocative
scenes from the cantata, and the dance has the scent of Palestinian
night about it, to my ears at least. The Berceuse héroïque
was written as a tribute to the Belgian soldiers of the First
World War. It’s a rather odd piece, contrasting gentle melancholy
with some plodding march rhythms, but it’s effective enough
in its own curious way.
Throughout the set Denève and his team get help from the tremendous
quality of the recorded sound, captured with outstanding clarity
by Brian Pidgeon and his Chandos engineers, and giving a real
sense of space to the sound, allowing each instrument to be
picked out and enjoyed in its own right, as well as relishing
its contribution to the whole. This sets the seal on an outstanding
release, a praiseworthy contribution to the Debussy anniversary
year, and a memento of what has become one of the most distinguished
musical partnerships of recent years. Invest with confidence.
Simon Thompson
see also review
by Dominy Clements
Women of the RSNO Chorus (Nocturnes)
[78:04
+ 68:22]