london Philharmonic Orchestra: French Masterpieces

Honegger Pacific 231
Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 5 (Egyptian)
Dukas La Péri
Debussy Images

Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Javier Perianes piano
London Philharmonic Orchestra

After the success of his so-called ‘Impressionistic’ depictions of oceans and woodland animals, Claude Debussy set out to achieve ‘something new – a new reality’. This new reality he talked of was the world of Images, where the free brushstrokes of Impressionism were replaced by something altogether more precise and pointillist. Images contains some of Debussy’s most delicate and luminous music, as well as his heady visions of life south of the French border in Spain. Vladimir Jurowski conducts this evening of French music, which also includes Saint-Saëns’s Fifth Piano Concerto, filled with the spice and exoticism of Egypt, and Honegger’s orchestral depiction of a pummelling steam train, Pacific 231.

This performance is being broadcast live by BBC Radio3 and will be available online in the UK for 30 days via iPlayer.