Debussy & Strauss is the first album to be released on the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's own record label, in partnership with LSO Live. For this debut recording, the MSO and conductor Jaime Martín are joined by outstanding Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg, the MSO's 2023 Artist in Residence. Together, they present two song cycles from opposite ends of life, exploring loves with vastly different essences. Debussy and Strauss inhabit such different musical worlds that it comes almost as a surprise to see them side by side and recognize they were members of the same generation. The fact that Debussy was more overtly modern in his work while Strauss was much longer lived-still writing halfway into the 20th century-reminds us that music history is a tangle of human lives and not a neat progression of movements and styles. Debussy's Ariettes oubliées (Forgotten Songs) is a 24-year-old's depiction of first love, the kind of thing that feels unbearably important at the time, but inevitably stumbles toward breakup and fades into the past. Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) is an 84-year-old's last word on a nearly 55-year marriage that ended only in death.
1 Debussy: Ariettes Oubliées, CD 63 (L. 60) I. C'est L'extase Langoureuse (Orch. Brett Dean)
2 Debussy: Ariettes Oubliées, CD 63 (L. 60) II. Il Pleure Dans Mon Cœur (Orch. Brett Dean)
3 Debussy: Ariettes Oubliées, CD 63 (L. 60) III. L'ombre Des Arbres (Orch. Brett Dean)
4 Debussy: Ariettes Oubliées, CD 63 (L. 60) IV. Chevaux de Bois (Orch. Brett Dean)
5 Debussy: Ariettes Oubliées, CD 63 (L. 60) V. Green (Orch. Brett Dean)
6 Debussy: Ariettes Oubliées, CD 63 (L. 60) VI. Spleen (Orch. Brett Dean)
7 Strauss: Four Last Songs (Vier Letzte Lieder), Op. Posth., TRV 296 I. Frühling
8 Strauss: Four Last Songs (Vier Letzte Lieder), Op. Posth., TRV 296 II. September
9 Strauss: Four Last Songs (Vier Letzte Lieder), Op. Posth., TRV 296 III. Beim Schlafengehen
10 Strauss: Four Last Songs (Vier Letzte Lieder), Op. Posth., TRV 296 IV. Im Abendrot
Debussy & Strauss is the first album to be released on the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's own record label, in partnership with LSO Live. For this debut recording, the MSO and conductor Jaime Martín are joined by outstanding Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg, the MSO's 2023 Artist in Residence. Together, they present two song cycles from opposite ends of life, exploring loves with vastly different essences. Debussy and Strauss inhabit such different musical worlds that it comes almost as a surprise to see them side by side and recognize they were members of the same generation. The fact that Debussy was more overtly modern in his work while Strauss was much longer lived-still writing halfway into the 20th century-reminds us that music history is a tangle of human lives and not a neat progression of movements and styles. Debussy's Ariettes oubliées (Forgotten Songs) is a 24-year-old's depiction of first love, the kind of thing that feels unbearably important at the time, but inevitably stumbles toward breakup and fades into the past. Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) is an 84-year-old's last word on a nearly 55-year marriage that ended only in death.
