Essential Dukas

Dukas was born in Paris to a banker father and a mother who was a fine pianist. He undertook traditional studies at the Paris Conservatoire with Ernest Guiraud and his first published work was the 'Polyeucte' Overture (1891) after Pierre Corneille's drama. But, as his epic symphony and piano sonata show, he was equally proficient when composing in larger forms. He spent seven years writing his only opera 'Ariane et Barbe-Bleue', to a Maurice Maeterlinck play on the same subject as Béla Bartók's slightly later 'Duke Bluebeard's Castle'. He was a prolific critic and editor of early music (particularly works of Couperin, Rameau and Domenico Scarlatti) and retained a studiously non-partisan attitude within the divisive musical world of fin-de-siècle Paris. He was also intensely critical of his own works, though, leaving behind just a small output: nearly all of his published compositions are represented – in whole or in part – by this playlist.