Nocturnes, L 98 (also known as Trois Nocturnes or Three Nocturnes) is an Impressionist orchestral composition in three movements by the French composer Claude Debussy, who wrote it between 1892 and 1899. It is based on poems from Poèmes anciens et romanesques (Henri de Régnier, 1890).
Composition
"Three Scenes at Twilight"
Based on comments in various Debussy letters and in Léon Vallas's biography, Régnier was a symbolist poet, and his poems contain vivid imagery and dreamlike associations of ideas. In a letter to Jacques Durand on 3 September 1907, Debussy writes "I am more and more convinced that music, by its very nature, is something that cannot be cast into a traditional and fixed form. It is made up of colors and rhythms"; he found suitable material in the imagery of these poems. Thus it wasn't until 1896 that he informed Ysaÿe that the music for the Nocturnes had pretty much been completed and he still wanted Ysaÿe to perform the solo violin part.
For several years after its publication, almost until the day he died, Debussy continued to tinker with the composition, at first making corrections to dozens of errors in his copy of the published score, then moving on to adjusting small passages and fundamentally revising the orchestration. Many of these changes were finally incorporated into a "definitive version" published in 1930 by Jobert. One reviewer states "in this new critical edition for the Debussy oeuvres complètes, all of the most important questions concerning the establishment of a text of the Nocturnes for practical performance have been confidently answered." The Nocturnes are considered one of Debussy's most accessible and popular works, admired for their beauty and for holding new possibilities and wonder upon repeated hearings.
According to Debussy, "'Nuages' renders the immutable aspect of the sky and the slow, solemn motion of the clouds, fading away in grey tones lightly tinged with white."
II. Fêtes
thumb|upright=1.8|Fêtes uses time (shown subdivided into and )The tempo markings are "Animé et très rythmé – Un peu plus animé – Modéré mais toujours très rythmé – Tempo I – De plus en plus sonore et en serrant le mouvement – Même Mouvement." Debussy's description of the Sirens movement reminded his biographer Léon Vallas of Whistler's "Harmonies in blue and silver". Vallas noted that Whistler "was a favourite with Debussy, and their art has often been compared."
Discography
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+Recordings of the complete orchestral version
!Year
!Conductor
!Orchestra
!Label
|-
|1939
|Piero Coppola
|Orchestre de Paris
|HMV
|-
|1940
|Leopold Stokowski
|The Philadelphia Orchestra
|RCA Victor
|-
|1952
|Ernest Ansermet
|L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
|Decca
|-
|1952
|Antal Doráti
|Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
|Mercury
|-
|1953
|Jean Fournet
|Orchestre de Paris
|Philips
|-
|1954
|Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht
|Orchestre National de France
|Columbia
|-
|1955
|Pierre Monteux
|Boston Symphony Orchestra
|RCA Victor
|-
|1956
|Eugene Ormandy
|The Philadelphia Orchestra
|Columbia
|-
|1958
|Eduard van Beinum
|Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
|Philips
|-
|1958
|Constantin Silvestri
|Orchestre de Paris
|EMI
|-
|1960
|Ernest Ansermet
|L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romance
|Decca
|-
|1960
|Leopold Stokowski
|London Symphony Orchestra
|Capitol
|-
|1961
|Pierre Dervaux
|Orchestre Colonne
|Westminster
|-
|1961
|Leonard Bernstein
|New York Philharmonic
|Columbia
|-
|1961
|Manuel Rosenthal
|Orchestre National de l'Opéra de Paris
|Vega Records
|-
|1962
|Carlo Maria Giulini
|Philharmonia Orchestra
|EMI
|-
|1962
|Charles Munch
|Boston Symphony Orchestra
|RCA Victor
|-
|1962
|Pierre Monteux
|London Symphony Orchestra
|Decca
|-
|1962
|Paul Paray
|Detroit Symphony Orchestra
|Mercury
|-
|1963
|Pierre Monteaux
|Orchestre de Paris
|RCA Victor
|-
|1964
|Jean Fournet
|Czech Philharmonic
|Supraphon
|-
|1965
|Eugene Ormandy
|The Philadelphia Orchestra
|Columbia
|-
|1969
|Sir John Barbirolli
|Orchestre de Paris
|EMI
|-
|1970
|Claudio Abbado
|Boston Symphony Orchestra
|Deutsche Grammophon
|-
|1970
|Eliahu Inbal
|Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
|Philips
|-
|1971
|Pierre Boulez
|New Philharmonia Orchestra
|Columbia
|-
|1973
|Louis de Froment
|Orchestre Philharmonique Luxembourg
|Vox
|-
|1974
|Jean Martinon
|Orchestre National de France
|EMI
|-
|1974
|Jean Fournet
|Radio Filharmonisch Orkest
|Decca
|-
|1976
|Antal Doráti
|National Symphony Orchestra
|Decca
|-
|1978
|Daniel Barenboim
|Orchestre de Paris
|Deutsche Grammophon
|-
|1979
|Lorin Maazel
|The Cleveland Orchestra
|Decca
|-
|1980
|Bernard Haitink
|Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
|Philips
|-
|1981
|Alain Lombard
|Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg
|Erato
|-
|1982
|Sir Colin Davis
|Boston Symphony Orchestra
|Philips
|-
|1982
|Sergiu Comissiona
|Houston Symphony Orchestra
|Vanguard
|-
|1983
|Michael Tilson Thomas
|London Philharmonic Orchestra
|CBS Masterworks
|-
|1984
|André Previn
|London Symphony Orchestra
|EMI
|-
|1987
|Vladimir Ashkenazy
|The Cleveland Orchestra
|Decca
|-
|1988
|Michel Plasson
|Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse
|EMI
|-
|1988
|Michael Tilson Thomas
|Philharmonia Orchestra
|CBS Masterworks
|-
|1988
|Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
|London Symphony Orchestra
|IMP Classics
|-
|1990
|Alexander Rahbari
|BRT Philharmonic Orchestra
|Naxos
|-
|1990
|Charles Dutoit
|Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
|Decca
|-
|1990
|Yan Pascal Tortelier
|Ulster Orchestra
|Chandos
|-
|1991
|Armin Jordan
|L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
|Erato
|-
|1992
|Sir Georg Solti
|Chicago Symphony Orchestra
|Decca
|-
|1994
|Esa-Pekka Salonen
|Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
|Sony Classical
|-
|1994
|Jean-Claude Casadesus
|L'Orchestre National de Lille
|Harmonia Mundi
|-
|1999
|Lorin Maazel
|Wiener Philharmoniker
|RCA Victor
|-
|2005
|Paavo Järvi
|Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
|Telarc
|-
|2008
|Jun Märkl
|Orchestre National de Lyon
|Naxos
|-
|2018
|François-Xavier Roth
|Les Siècles
|Harmonia Mundi
|}
References
External links
- YouTube - Pierre Boulez, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna State Opera Chorus (Salzburg Festival, August 30, 1992)
- YouTube - Mikko Franck, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Chœur de Radio France, Maîtrise de Radio France (September 15, 2017)