François-Xavier Roth conducts Debussy

The French conductor François-Xavier Roth is the first to record the Suite n°1 by Claude Debussy. The musicologists Jean-Christophe Branger and Denis Herlin rediscovered the score in a library in New-York. They found both versions of the score: for piano and for orchestra.  The orchestration of the third movement has not been completed so a new orchestration has been commissioned to the French contemporary composer Philippe Manoury. Debussy composed the Suite n°1 in his last years of studies at the Conservatory of Paris.  This Suite slaloms between many references and styles of his time:  Chabrier, Gounod, Delibes and a touch of exoticism. The Suite n°1 is certainly not a masterpiece because of too demonstrative effects and a lack of stylish unity.  But, its typically « nineteenth-century » charm is appealing.  François-Xavier Roth bowdlerizes the plumb effects of the score.

The second part of the CD is devoted to La Mer.  The conductor is able to create an ecstatic post-impressionist climate and a firework of instrumental colours. His baton is very expressive in a transparent and shimmering French tradition of conducting.  The Orchestra “Les Siècles” is playing with flexibility and a sense of style.

In the segment “Debussy played on period instruments” this album is certainly a must. It's actually much better than the recent CD conducted by Jos van Immerseel (Zig Zag) which was too blunt and not in style.