WGBH Radio WGBH Radio theclassicalstation.org
Welcome to ArkivMusic, the retail store for CLOFO!

Bernstein Century - Debussy: Le Martyre De Saint Sébastian


Release Date: 07/14/1998 
Label:  Sony   Catalog #: 60596   Spars Code: ADD 
Composer:  Claude Debussy
Performer:  Fritz Weaver,  Adele Addison,  Virginia Babikian,  Marlena Kleinman,   ... 
Conductor:  Leonard Bernstein
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Choral Art Society,  New York Philharmonic
Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 1 Hours 15 Mins. 

Low Stock: Currently 3 or fewer in stock. Usually ships in 24 hours, unless stock becomes depleted.  
ArkivCD $16.99
Low Stock
BUY 
ArkivCD:  $16.99 Add to Cart

WISH LIST




Be the first to review this title

This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.

Notes and Editorial Reviews

This is Debussy’s last stage work, a synthesis of orchestral and vocal music, dance, mime and speech, written (in 1911) after all the well-known orchestral works. D’Annunzio’s text is spoken in Bernstein’s own translation (the recording made in 1962, his wife one of the narrators), but the music is sung in French. It’s uneven but a worthwhile curiosity, among its best moments the serenely celestial ‘Magic Chamber’, in which the NYPO strings bloom, and ‘The Wounded Laurel’ which could have come from La mer. Mr and Mrs Bernstein were having a good day judging by the passion which comes across.

-- Christopher Fifield, BBC Music Magazine

------

This is a one-of-a-kind recording of a strange work. The Read more lurid legend of Saint Sebastian, the beautiful young man who spurned the advances of Emperor Diocletian and was summarily tied to a tree and executed by a firing squad of archers, has attracted the more prurient attentions of artists for centuries. When Claude Debussy and writer Gabriele d'Annunzio decided to present the myth in a gigantic, five-hour multimedia extravaganza with singing, recitation, mime and dance, something weird was bound to happen. Two weeks before the premiere, the Vatican banned D'Annunzio's works, and the Archbishop of Paris forbid Catholics from attending. 'Le Martyre de Saint Sebastian' was a tremendous flop, has not been staged since and is only heard in various fragmentary forms which reveal some of Debussy's more interesting and forward-looking music. This disc contains an oratorio treatment with translation by Leonard Bernstein himself and the spoken part of the Saint taken by Bernstein's wife, Felicia Montealegre.
Read less

Works on This Recording

1. Le martyre de St Sébastien by Claude Debussy
Performer:  Fritz Weaver (Spoken Vocals), Adele Addison (Soprano), Virginia Babikian (Soprano),
Marlena Kleinman (Mezzo Soprano), Joanna Simon (Mezzo Soprano), Felicia Montealegre (Spoken Vocals)
Conductor:  Leonard Bernstein
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Choral Art Society,  New York Philharmonic
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1911; France 
 Date of Recording: 10/22/1962 
Venue:  Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC 
Length: 75 Minutes 16 Secs. 
Language: English 

Customer Reviews

Be the first to review this title
Review This Title
Review This Title Share on Facebook