Norfolk Symphony Orchestra

Debussy completed his Prélude in the summer of 1894. He had originally planned to write a Prélude, Interlude, et Paraphrase Finale pour L'après-midi d’un Faune but abandoned the second and third parts while they were still fragmentary sketches. The music was based on a poem by Mallarmé published in 1876 but it avoids a direct depiction of the poem. Mallarmé was enthusiastic about the score and is quoted by Debussy as having said, “This music prolongs the emotion of my poem and fixes the scene much more vividly than colour could have done". The composer himself wrote, “The music of this prelude is a very free illustration of Mallarmé's beautiful poem. By no means does it claim to be a synthesis of it. Rather there is a succession of scenes through which pass the desires and dreams of the faun in the heat of the afternoon. Then, tired of pursuing the timorous flight of nymphs and naiads, he succumbs to intoxicating sleep, in which he can finally realise his dreams of possession in universal Nature.”

The opening flute solo, one of the most famous passages in musical modernism, is answered by a languid horn motif. This initial characterisation conjures up an impression of a gently shimmering heat-haze. The overall structure is loose, playing on light, colour and an ever subtly changing palette of textures to achieve its magical effect - the antique cymbals at the end proving a particularly felicitous touch. The whole stands as a beautiful example of music portraying colour, mood and eroticism - justly one of Debussy's most appealing compositions. As this is a very favourite piece of music, I cannot resist quoting from a contemporary review in the Referee, London, August 21st, 1904. “A vacuum has been described as nothing shut up in a box and the prelude entitled L'après-midi d'un Faune may aptly be described as nothing, expressed in musical terms. The subject certainly affords opportunity for the exercise of the composer's imagination, but he appears to have come to the conclusion that the fortunate faun was not thinking about anything at all ... the piece begins with a fragment of the chromatic scale played by the flute, manifestly selected with care to express nothing. After the flute has wobbled up and down with these fine semitones, the clarinet imitates its mild gambols, supported by the strings, which seem to take more interest in life. Presently the first violin gives out another theme, which begins with a suggestion of tenderness, but seems to grow frightened at venturing to suggest anything and gets a bad attack of the chromatics ... was glad when the end came." Personally, I'm never glad when this glorious music ends, it's so lovely.