Debussy
Celebrating 150 years since Debussy’s birth, the Proms displays the breadth of the composer’s work, beginning at the grand end of the spectrum with a performance of his only completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, on the opening weekend of the season under Sir John Eliot Gardiner (pictured) with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (15 July).
Orchestral highlights include Thierry Fischer and the 主播大秀 National Orchestra of Wales performing La mer and Henry Wood’s orchestration of La cathédrale engloutie (26 July), while, in a programme otherwise devoted to living British composers, the 主播大秀 Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen (himself a featured composer, in celebration of his 60th birthday) offers a fresh perspective on Debussy’s ‘mystery’ The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (25 August). Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker round off the orchestral survey with the ‘dance-poem’ Jeux (30 August).
Four of this year’s eight Proms Chamber Music concerts at Cadogan Hall explore the range of Debussy’s writing for solo instruments and ensembles, with his Cello and Violin Sonatas performed by Nicolas Altstaedt, Jennifer Pike and Igor Levit (6 August), his String Quartet performed by the Escher Quartet (20 August), the Sonata for flute, viola and harp with the Nash Ensemble (27 August) and Book 2 of the Préludes performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard in the final Proms Chamber Music concert of the season (3 September).