We also know that Debussy greatly admired Turner’s work [the English painter]. His richly atmospheric seascapes recorded the daily weather, the time of day, and even the most fleeting effects of wind and light in ways utterly new to painting, and they spoke directly to Debussy. (In 1902, when Debussy went to London, where he saw a number of Turner’s paintings, he enjoyed the trip but hated actually crossing the channel.) The name Debussy finally gave to the first section of La mer, From Dawn to Noon on the Sea, might easily be that of a painting by Turner made sixty years earlier, for the two shared not only a love of subject but also of long, specific, evocative titles.
For example, this April, Argerich and Vengerov are performing all 10 of Beethoven’s violin sonatas across three consecutive nights at Carnegie Hall. My friend is thrilled and excited to spend a buttload of money bc the performer hadn’t announced which sonata will be performed at which night. So he needs to go for all three nights to secure that he hear his fav violinist plays his fav Sonata No. 9.
A lot of concerts programming sees a bundling of nice pieces plus, a contemporary one. Tonight, the cost of two Debussy is Gabriella Smith’s Lost Coast Concerto, cleverly placed between two Debussy pieces.
While we’re not sure whether the audience like the concerto, the orchestra seems happy by the end.
