Essential Debussy
A key figure in modernism as the music made its way into the 20th century, Claude Debussy helped to loosen the harmonic and rhythmic moorings the art form had relied upon in previous centuries. Inspired early on by the operas of Wagner, he also discovered the music of the east in 1889 and began to compose scores in which music seems to float weightlessly, beginning with the beguiling 'Prélude à l’apès-midi d'un faune'. This and the delicacy of Debussy's orchestration led to him being described as an 'impressionist'. But it was a term that he refuted, and which underplays his role as one of music’s great revolutionaries, as such works as his opera 'Pelléas et Mélisande' testify. This playlist offers an overview of some of his best-known works as well as more rarely heard scores, covering piano, orchestral, chamber and vocal music.