During the first decades of the last century, Paris took over from Vienna as the center of the art-music's universe. Ideas and styles exploded like fireworks from the French capital, and among the first figures sending them into the wider world was Claude Debussy. His PremiÃ¨re Rhapsodie began life as a competition piece for clarinet, first performed in 1911, and while the later orchestral version is now more commonly heard, it is instructive to revisit the composer's original, more subtly allusive first thoughts. Seven years later, by now dying of cancer, Debussy completed the last of three works in which he returned to the traditional form of sonata which he had avoided through much of his career in favor of tone-pictures such as the PrÃ©ludes and suites for piano. The Violin Sonata counts among his most concise and refined works in an output touched throughout by those qualities, demanding the greatest subtlety and passion from it's interpreters. In the same year as the PremiÃ¨re Rhapsodie, Stravinsky had scored his career-defining succÃ¨s de scandale with the premiere of Le sacre du printemps, and by 1918 he was established as a darling of the Parisian avant-garde when he composed L'histoire du soldat for a septet of instruments and narrator. The following year he arranged five self-contained numbers from the score into a suite, further reduced for a spiky instrumental trio and featuring the marvelously sly tango as well as the Rite-like final Danse du soldat. Milhaud's Suite and BartÃ³k's Contrasts date from two decades later, but they are still infused with the absinthe and lemon of 20s Parisian culture. Heard together, the five works paint a portrait of a world of dazzling colours and restless momentum, sometimes bewildered by it's own precosity, taking what it wanted from old cultures and always breaking new paths.

Tracklist:

Suite For Violin, Clarinet And Piano, Op. 157b: I. Ouverture
Suite For Violin, Clarinet And Piano, Op. 157b: II. Divertissement
Suite For Violin, Clarinet And Piano, Op. 157b: III. Jeu
Suite For Violin, Clarinet And Piano, Op. 157b: IV. Introduction Et Final
Première Rhapsodie
Suite From L'histoire Du Soldat: I. Marche Du Soldat
Suite From L'histoire Du Soldat: II. Le Violon Du Soldat
Suite From L'histoire Du Soldat: III. Petit Concert
Suite From L'histoire Du Soldat: IV. Tango Valse Rag
Suite From L'histoire Du Soldat: V. La Danse Du Diable
Sonate For Violin And Piano: I. Allegro Vivo
Sonate For Violin And Piano: II. Intermède
Sonate For Violin And Piano: III. Finale
Contrasts, Sz.111: I. Verbunkos
Contrasts, Sz.111: II. Pihenõ
Contrasts, Sz.111: III. Sebes

UPC: 5028421960012
Label: Brilliant Classics
Release Date: 3.26.21
Format: CD

Bartok / Bandieri / Vila - Around Paris (CD)