The phrasing of La Plus Que Lente is on one level quite straightforward.

The more awareness of these resonances the student has, the more they will be able to liberate their playing and give it the required depth of understanding and spontaneity.

It therefore contains constant echoes of its historical context (see Background). However, it is also a direct descendent of the nineteenth-century Waltz, written in France at a time when the waltz was still widely danced in large and small social gatherings. The style of the music is very typical of Debussy’s musical innovations, with its unresolved dissonances, unprepared modulations and irregular phrases. Uninhibited (but not chaotic) expressiveness and a wide but well controlled dynamic range are essential. They will already have explored Chopin’s waltzes and Schumann’s miniatures, along with some of Debussy’s other piano music such as the Preludes.Īny student who is unable to relax into a genuinely free rubato will have great difficulty conveying the mood and effect of this piece. This is for the confident, sensitive and highly musical student who has mastered cantabile playing and has a good grasp of multi-layered dynamics, pedalling and rubato. He once referred to Wagner’s music as “A beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn” and repeatedly stated the need to abandon the old constraints of theory and form, and express nature and feeling without artificiality. His style was mature and his ideas about art and music were very much those of a new beginning rather than a continuation of tradition. Engineer Russell Thomson.“It is necessary to abandon yourself completely, and let the music do as it will with you.” (Claude Debussy)ĭebussy wrote La plus que lente in 1910, the same year he composed the first set of Preludes. Recorded live in concert at Hamer Hall, Narrm/Melbourne, on March 26 2021. Lyon likens the 'shimmering veins' of opal through ancient rock, and the combination of silica and water which forms it, to the 'close harmonies creating glimmering frequencies' and the weaving lines that she's written for the two soloists. May Lyon's Opal was commissioned by the MSO for two of its own: Principal Horn Nicolas Fleury and section horn Rachel Shaw. Here he guides the orchestra alternately through the bold grandeur of Finlandia, and the intense introspection of Rautavaara's Angel of Light. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra goes to Finland and back with their Principal Conductor in Residence Benjamin Northey.Īs a graduate of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Benjamin Northey holds the music of Finland close to his heart.

La plus que lente debussy program notes