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LA MER
DEBUSSY • BRITTEN • MERCURE

Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal

ACD2 2775

“Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted his orchestra with disconcerting ease, fully blending with it into one harmonious whole.” — Le Monde de la Musique

ATMA Classique have reissued its critically acclaimed recording of La Mer : Debussy, Britten, Mercure in stereo format.   Recorded in 2007 by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain, La Mer garnered five stars from the French magazine Diapason, which declared, “What is immediately apparent in Yannick Nézet-Séguin's Debussy is its meticulousness, its almost chamber-music like transparency, and its subtle shading.”   Pierre Mercure's Kaléidoscope was also praised for its “formidably contrasted reading …Under Yannick Nézet-Séguin's baton, the work's constantly shifting emotional climate combines tragic grandeur with the most cheerful lightness.”

La Mer revisits a live concert program performed by the Orchestre Métropolitain during its 2006-2007 season.   “What genius Britten shows in his four interludes from the opera Peter Grimes. […] Nézet-Séguin recreates the exact context of each scene portrayed, from the depths of the ocean to the sky-shaking tempest. […] The young conductor ends with Debussy's La Mer, […] a very impressive performance, sometimes lyric, sometimes livid, always detailed.” (La Presse) “It was pure delight to hear Pierre Mercure's Kaléidoscope played with such emotion.” (The Gazette)

• In 2020, Yannick Nézet-Séguin succeeds James Levine to become the third Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

• Nézet-Séguin is the Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, a post he assumed in September 2012. He is also Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain of Montreal.

• Since Yannick Nézet-Séguin assumed the role of the artistic director in 2000, the Orchestre Métropolitain's reputation for passion and its drive for excellence have continued to grow — at home and abroad.


CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
La Mer     [ 24:26 ]
Trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestre (1905)
1. De l'aube à midi sur la mer | Très lent     [ 9:16 ]
2. Jeux de vagues | Allegro     [ 6:46 ]
3. Dialogue du vent et de la mer | Animé et tumultueux     [ 8:24 ]

BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913-1976)
Four Sea Interludes (op.33a) (1945)     [ 17:13 ]
4. Dawn     [ 3:50 ]
5. Sunday Morning     [ 3:46 ]
6. Moonlight     [ 4:57 ]
7. Storm     [ 4:40 ]

PIERRE MERCURE (1927-1966)
8. Kaléidoscope (1948)     [ 10:53 ]

CLAUDE DEBUSSY
9. Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894)     [ 11:16 ]
    MARIE-ANDRÉE BENNY, FLÛTE | FLUTE



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