| Contents |
Foreword / by Jeremy Sams -- Preface / by Roger Nichols -- Hector Berlioz: fantasy and fury. [Hector Berlioz and the Symphonie fantastique] -- ... and beyond ... -- Frédéric Chopin: a difficult genius -- Charles Gounod -- Edouard Lalo -- Camille Saint-Saëns -- Léo Delibes -- Jules Massenet: a man of pleasure -- Emmanuel Chabrier. Chabrier: selected letters -- Heap, heap, hurrah!: a review -- The angel of laughter -- Gabriel Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande. [Maeterlinck and Pelléas in Paris] ; [Pelléas in London] ; [Pelléas and Fauré] ; [Pelléas and Koechlin] ; [Reactions to Pelléas] ; [Subsequent productions] -- Claude Debussy. Debussy: the reception of his music in Britain up to 1914 -- Debussy as man and artist -- Debussy and Degas: beyond impressionism -- Debussy Ravel and an orchestra for the 20th century -- Debussy, d'Annunzio and Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien -- Pelléas et Mélisande / L'Enfant et les sortilèges -- Pelléas et Mélisande: reviews by d'Indy, Dukas and Willy -- Who was Mélisande? -- Pelléas et Mélisande: interview with Irène Joachim -- Albéric Magnard -- Florent Schmitt -- Erik Satie -- The trouble with Satie -- Parade: a mix of extraordinary talents -- Le Groupe des Six: 100 years on -- Reynaldo Hahn -- Maurice Ravel. Raveliana: new insights. [Ravel the teacher] ; [Ravel on the Franco-Spanish entente] ; [Ravel and Stravinsky] ; [Ravel on his piano music] ; [The housekeeper's tale] -- Ravel and the 20th century -- Ravel and the dance -- Ravel and Spain -- Ravel, Dreyfus and sex -- Ravel and the critics -- The Châtelet Ballet Gala of 22 April 1912 -- Music and impressionism -- Jean Cocteau and Igor Stravinsky -- Arthur Honegger: incantation to the fossils, a documentary -- Francis Poulenc, French ballet, and the pleasure principle -- Francis Poulenc: and the road to La Voix humaine -- Maurice Duruflé -- Olivier Messiaen. Messiaen and the journey to a world beyond -- Messiaen: ornitheology and all that -- Messiaen at 70: an interview -- Debussy and Messiaen -- Ravel and Messiaen: accords and discords -- Messiaen: interview with Pierre Boulez -- Messiaen: interview with Dame Gillian Weir -- Music in Paris in the 1940s -- Henri Dutilleux at 75: conversations -- Henri Dutilleux at nearly 90 -- Henri Dutilleux: obituary -- Pierre Boulez and André Schaeffner: a review -- Thirty years of IRCAM [1977-2007]. [History] ; [The founding of IRCAM] ; [The early years] ; [IRCAM and the outside world] ; [Past and future] -- Adieu, Pierre Boulez: obituary. |
| Abstract |
Awarded the legion d'Honneur by the French government in 2006 for his services to French culture, the acclaimed writer and broadcaster invites the reader to accompany him on his journey through the century-and-a-half turbulent and fertile period in the history of French music from Berlioz to Boulez. In compiling his collection of articles, interviews, radio plays and talks, the author begins with Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and ends with his obituary of Pierre Boulez. Along the way, he includes in-depth studies of Debussy and Ravel, connecting the two by a comparison of their operatic masterpieces, Pelleas et Melisande and l'Enfant et les sortileges. Twenty other significant composers from this fascinating period come in for his hallmark combination of erudition and wit. |
