I’ve always loved Claude Debussy’s music. From the first time I heard “Afternoon of a Faun” when I was around 19 or twenty, his music has exerted a strong emotional pull on me. For me, Debussy–and ...

Claude Debussy’s singular visit to Spain lasted only an hour or two, long enough to attend a bullfight. Even so, his contemporary Manuel de Falla declared Debussy’s Iberia to be more genuine than ...

In the western suburbs of Paris 150 years ago today, a boy was born to an unassuming couple, proprietors of a china shop who had no great taste for music. But that little boy felt otherwise, and grew ...

Last night I once again listened to a wonderful cd called Air: Music for Harp, Flute, and Strings, with Music by Takemitsu and Debussy (Telarc CD 80694, 2008). Debussy (1862-1918) was smitten first by ...

As a composer whose orchestral music usually grew from scenic or pictorial inspirations – the sea, a faun, clouds, a street festival in Spain – Debussy probably seems an unlikely writer of something ...

It begins with one of the most famous flute lines in history… and played deftly by the Principle flute of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Samuel Coles. [Music sample of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun] ...

The Symphony season began in Boston last week with Boston’s best in attendance and Serge Koussevitzky conducting. Lest those factors-alone should breed complacency, the management complained in its ...

We think of Debussy as a master of the orchestra, but like so many composers he began life as a pianist, and continued to think in pianistic terms throughout his career. One of the many delights of ...

With the sesquicentennial of Claude Debussy's birth coming up fast on Aug. 22, you'd think there would be a small blizzard of new Debussy releases. This year, not so much; maybe it's a sign of the ...