Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Jeux Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Albert Roussel (1869-1937) Bacchus et Ariane, Suite no. 2
DEBUSSY PRÉLUDE À L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN FAUNE (Track 1) The seductive opening flute solo represents, it is safe to assume, the reed pipe that mythology, together with an aggressive male sexuality, attributes to the faun or satyr. The contrasting theme, a pentatonic tune introduced on oboe (4:09) could be associated with the pair of nymphs who so frustratingly prove to be less interested in the Faun than they are in each other.
DEBUSSY JEUX (Track 2) The one melodic idea that can be described as a main theme in Jeux makes its first appearance as a playful little clarinet tune at the same time as the first stray tennis ball bounces onto the empty stage (1:33). Just about its last manifestation is an expressive fortissimo augmentation of its first four notes in a suddenly slower tempo marking the ecstatic climax (17:35) of the threesome and the consummation of the whole work.
SATIE PARADE PETITE FILLE AMÉRICAINE (Track 6) The most eventful episode in the ballet features the American Girl, a Mary Pickford figure whose adventures include, after a little work on the typewriter, a shoot-out with a robber. In the central ‘Rag-time de paquebot’ (Steamship Rag), based on Irving Berlin’s ‘That Mysterious Rag’ (1:53), she dreams that she is on board the Titanic, which duly sounds its siren and sinks in a wave of scales on woodwind and strings.
ROUSSEL BACCHUS ET ARIANE SUITE NO. 2 (Track 10) The preponderance in the Second Suite of the pounding, often syncopated rhythms for which Roussel is so celebrated makes Ariadne’s emotional solo all the more precious. Beginning Andante with sinuous violin (10:41) and woodwind, it slows down for an ardent and ever more expressive Lento, then gathers in both momentum and passion before it breaks off for the dramatic intervention of Bacchus and the closing bacchanal.
