Just released: the new edition of Claude Debussy's Poème for violin and orchestra, completed by Robert Orledge

orchestration: 21EH22/4200/timp/1perc(susp. cym;/trangle)hp/strings (minimum 12.10.8.6.4) with solo violin

duration: aprox: 10'00"

Hear a live performance:

Debussy’s close friendship with the American violinist Arthur Hartmann (1881-1956) began in 1908, and in the summer of 1910 they planned an American tour of 24 East Coast cities during January-February 1912. During this tour, Debussy was to “conduct the orchestra, an opera of my composition [possibly at this stage The Fall of the House of Usher], or play the piano.” And in every concert, Hartmann was to perform Debussy’s specially composed Poème pour violon et orchestre as the main highlight of the evening. Although the fee of $15000 that Debussy demanded eventually proved too high for the organisers, he wrote two themes for the Poème in 1910, and in January 1914, when he arranged his piano prelude Minstrels for ‘piano et Hartmann’, he added three more, quite extended, and motivically linked themes. As in the case of his sketches for the contemporary ballet No-ja-li, these were virtually all the material necessary for him to complete the work, and as Debussy had no hesitation in asking other composers, such as André Caplet, Charles Koechlin and Henri Busser, to help him complete or orchestrate his works in the 1910-14 period, Robert Orledge decided to complete this masterful work, which was premièred in its final form on 4 March 2013 by Isabelle Faust (Vln), with Orchestre de Lyon, conducted by Heinz Holliger. For more infromatino and for links to purchase scores/piano reductions, please visit this page.