i. Cloches à travers les feuilles (Bells through the leaves)
ii. Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut (And the moon descends on the temple that was)
iii. Poissons d’or (Golden fish)
After I had completed the orchestration of all 24 of Debussy’s piano Préludes for the Hallé in 2006, I had no intention of continuing with more Debussy orchestrations until I received a request in 2016 from L’Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg to orchestrate Book I of the Images for piano (composed from 1901 to 1905). After this had been recorded by them it seemed logical to continue with Book II (1907), although this time without a commission, so that the first and third movements are received their first performance as part of the Aldeburgh Festival by the London Symphony Orchestra and Antonio Pappano on June 29 2025. (The Hallé and Mark Elder recorded the second movement in 2022).
Debussy put the titles at the end of each of the Préludes, with the implication that the musical material is more important than any programmatic content, and although the titles precede all of the Images there is nothing particularly specific about them. Bell sounds prevail in the first movement, but the derivation of the other titles is not clear. Poissons d’or is translated as ‘golden fish’, as the French for goldfish is ‘poisson rouge’.
Categories: Arrangements and orchestrations, Orchestra