Debussy's Images for orchestra
Yshani Perinpanayagam chooses her favourite recording of Debussy's Images for Orchestra.
Yshani Perinpanayagam chooses her favourite recording of Debussy's Images for Orchestra.
Composed between 1906 and 1912, Images is Debussy鈥檚 final concert work for orchestra. Over its three sections it abundantly displays his customary sophistication and flair for orchestral sonorities and for painting pictures in sound. The first and last parts of the triptych are folk-inflected: the enigmatic Gigues quotes 'The Keel Row' from Northumberland and two French folk tunes feature in Rondes de printemps. The middle (and most often performed) section, Ib茅ria, is itself a triptych. Even though Debussy famously spent no more than an afternoon in Spain, Ib茅ria's three movements conjure up the sights, sounds and smells of Spain so evocatively that even his Spanish contemporaries were impressed.
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Building a Library: a guide to the best recordings of the greatest classical music.