In this period his music bears the subcutaneous marks of a deep, personal crisis, clearly reflected as well in L’Isle Joyeuse as Masques for piano solo. The opposition between both speaks of torment: the joy he experienced with his mistress – his future wife Emma Bardac – fervently contrasts with his feelings of guilt because of the imminent divorce from Lily Texier.
This performance presents the ‘Jersey music’ by Claude Debussy with an astounding arrangement of La Mer for an intimistic piano trio.
Browsing through Debussy’s letters, Lily as well as Emma muse accompanied by a new composition by Dominique Pauwels, as a faint echo of times long gone by, in search of the man behind the composer.
Dominique Pauwels
Grand Hotel (2019)
commissioned by SPECTRA
creation
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
La Mer (1903-1905)
L'Isle joyeuse (1904)
Masques (1904)
SPECTRA conducted by Filip Rathé
Reinhilde Decleir of Sara De Bosschere, voice