Concertgebouw Orchestra Essentials: Debussy's La mer

Concertgebouw Orchestra Essentials

The Essentials series introduces you to the masterpieces you will be happy to know, performed by the world-famous Concertgebouw Orchestra and complete with a lively introduction by the incomparable Thomas Vanderveken. At Essentials we welcome a new generation of music lovers, and the concerts typically have a pleasant informal atmosphere.

Debussy's La mer

La mer is a colourful, loving portrait of the many facets of the sea, from the shimmer of the rising sun to a playful dialogue between the wind and the waves. With this triptych, Claude Debussy took orchestral composition to a whole new level in 1905. Forty years later, Benjamin Britten wrote the dark opera Peter Grimes, set in a fishing village closely resembling Britten’s hometown of Aldeburgh. In the instrumental sections of the opera, the unfathomable depths of the North Sea reflect the beautiful, yet more virulent, remotest parts of the soul.

Essentials starts at 9 p.m. with an imaginative introduction to the programme (in Dutch).