Frank Pourcel - Morir de Amor

Happiness in Love: Debussy’s L’isle Joyeuse

by Maureen Buja, Interllude

The Fêtes galante style was a term specifically created by the French Academy in the early 18th century to describe Watteau’s paintings of country or parkland parties. It was his way of giving his patrons what they wanted, namely, pictures of themselves, and of giving the Academy what they wanted, namely, pictures on historical or mythological themes. The Academy disapproves of straight portraiture, but a patron has demands he will make on a poor painter, so what was Watteau to do?

Watteau: Embarkation for Cythera (1717)

Cythera, or, in modern Greek Kythira, is the Ionian island where Venus / Aphrodite was born, so would have been a destination for lovers everywhere.

Lancret: Conversation galante (1719) (The Wallace Collection)

The painting is everything a patron could want in a work – beautiful landscape, beautiful figures in beautiful clothes, beautiful statuary, and cupids everywhere. For the Academy, it’s a classical scene with mythological overtones. For the viewer, we have so many expressions of joy in the work: the couples in the middle of the work give us three stages of love – one couple in front of the statue is still engaged in their tryst, the three couples under the trees are in the acts of disengaging, while the couple walking down the hill are looking back in memory. More couples down by the boat are embarking for their voyage back to home. There’s no sorrow, no sadness, just a happiness and satisfaction in a perfect world.

Other painters, such as Fragonard, Lancret, and François de Troy also painted works in this heightened style, but the style itself was gone by the mid-18th century.

Jean François de Troy: La Déclaration d’amour (1731) (Berlin: Charlottenburg Palace)

The French composer Claude Debussy (1862–1918), known for his mastery in making one genre of painting, French Impressionism, into music, took up Watteau’s pastoral ideals with a work from 1904, L’isle Joyeuse, that gave a modernist twist to the older genre. First written for piano, it was later orchestrated with Debussy’s permission by the Italian conductor Bernardino Molinari. The orchestral work had its debut in 1923.

The piano version seems like it starts us at a precarious landing. The dancing rhythms carry us onto the island and up to the grove of Venus, where all delights await. It’s very much a personal piece, as though we are looking through the eyes of a character to see what’s around us. 

As an orchestral work, there’s a larger scope for setting the scene. More than just involving an individual character, the orchestra can provide a whole world of people. The celebration is heightened, and there’s more details in the sound picture – the woodwinds flitter Cupid-like, the harp adds another voice, and with the brass sound, it’s as though the whole world glitters. 

Conveying a picture in music is difficult but, in this work, Debussy and his orchestrator Molinari give us a world we wish we could just step into.

Till The End Of Time Vol. II

Disc 2 I'm Always Chasing Rainbows My Reverie Dream of Love And This Is My Beloved Full Moon and Empty Arms Somewhere, My Love The Most Beautiful Girl in the World This Nearly Was Mine On the Boardwalk (In Atlantic City) Baubles, Bangles and Beads Hello, Young Lovers It's a Grand Night for Singing Someday My Prince Will Come Out of My Dreams A Wonderful Guy Goodnight, My Someone Oh, What a Beautiful Morning Moon Love

Till The End Of Time Vol. I

Disc 1 Some Enchanted Evening Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered Hey There Smoke Gets in Your Eyes With a Song in My Heart Autumn Leaves Easy to Love The Song from Moulin Rouge (Where Is Your Heart) Star Dust I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You) Night and Day Laura How Deep Is the Ocean? Till the End of Time Tonight We Love Intermezzo (A Love Story) No Other Love Rhapsody in Blue

London Symphony Orchestra ♫ The Symphonic Beatles Play ♫

London Symphony Orchestra ♫ and London Pop Choir Play ♫ The Best of The Beatles | HD/HQ

Beatles -Let it be - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Club Band - Come together

The most soothing pieces of classical music – in Mental Health Awareness Month

10 soothing pieces of classical music in Mental Health Awareness Month. Picture: Alamy

By Classic FM

@ClassicFM

 

Classic FM presenters chose the pieces of music that bring them calm and solace, in times of need. 

Various studies have proven the calming effect of classical music. As well as having the power to ease nerves and jitters, and decrease your heart rate, it can also lower your cortisol levels and increase blood flow to the brain. There’s even a study out there that says it takes ‘nine minutes’ for music to make you happy, and to start smiling and laughing more.

In Mental Health Awareness Month, which this May focuses on anxiety, we asked some of our evening Classic FM presenters to tell us about the pieces of classical music that bring them calm and focus, when times are tough.

From Debussy to Delius, here are the soothing pieces they chose.

1. Rachmaninov – ‘Adagio Sostenuto’ from Piano Concerto No.2

   “If any piece has that little touch of magic, it’s what we like to call ‘Rach 2’. It’s simply one of the beautiful pieces of music, with soaring melody after soaring melody. And the nation agrees about that magic too – it's currently sitting at the top the Classic FM Hall of Fame.”

   

   Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, II. Adagio Sostenuto

2. Delius – On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring

   “I find a walk in the park or ideally a big country ramble really helpful when I’m feeling stressed or down. But of course that isn’t always possible. Listening to this piece conjures up the beauty and serenity of the outdoors which I find instantly calming and restful.”

   

   Delius - On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring

3. Bach – ‘Prelude’ from Cello Suite No.1

   “This piece is just like a big musical hug. It’s one of the pieces we used to have playing in the house all the time when I was growing up, and it’s really helped me over the years when I need a moment of quiet reflection. When it doubt, always turn to Bach…”

   

   Yo-Yo Ma | 'Prelude' from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 | Classic FM Sessions

4. Mahler – ‘Adagietto’ from Symphony No.5

   “Like so many people, I associate Mahler’s Symphony No.5 with Death in Venice, a restless and at times disturbing movie. Mahler himself called the first movement a ‘Funeral March’. But the Adagietto was a love song for his new wife and it is ripe with emotion. I adore Venice and once spent a very happy time studying there so for me this music brings back positive memories of a special and dreamy time. A certain way to lift my mood.”

   Ritula Shah: Calm Classics, weekdays 10pm-1am

   

   Mahler: Symphony No. 5 (Adagietto) / Rattle · Berliner Philharmoniker

5. John Barry – The Beyondness of Things

   “Now, if ever there was a Calm Classics favourite, this is it. A beautiful melody, evocative harmony, with the sort of contemporary touch only John Barry can add. A pure musical tonic for when you need that moment of stillness.”

   

   Barry: The beyondness of things

6. Chopin – Ballade No.4

   “Chopin, always Chopin when times are tough. It’s difficult to choose a single piece but there is such a wide range of emotion in Ballade No.4, it seems like the perfect choice. Poetic and complex - a mirror on our sometimes turbulent inner lives.”

   Ritula Shah: Calm Classics, weekdays 10pm-1am

   

   Chopin - Ballade No. 4 in F Minor (4M Special)

7. Alberto Giurioli – ‘Tutto è bellissimo’

   “My daughter Ella Rose loves this piece. It’s calming and relaxing, and helps us both wind down at the end of the day. Listening to this just puts tingles down my spine. One of those pieces that makes me think, ‘I wish I could play piano like this!’.” 

   Debussy – ‘Clair de lune’ from Suite Bergamasque

8. “Popular for good reason. I adore this piece so much that it is the ringtone on my phone. Who wants to be jolted into answering a call? I’d rather be gently bathed in moonlight and believe the world is a calm and peaceful place.”

   Ritula Shah: Calm Classics, weekdays 10pm-1am

   

   Lang Lang – Debussy: Suite bergamasque, L.75: III. Clair de lune

Erik Satie | History's Weirdest and Most Eccentric Musician

Erik Satie was a French composer and pianist, born on May 17th, 1866 and by all accounts, he was thought of as a talentless musician in his formative years. At least that’s how Georges Mathias, his professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire described him. "Insignificant,” “laborious," and "worthless" were his exact words. Émile Decombes, another one of Satie’s piano professors called him "the laziest student in the Conservatoire." It’s true, Satie wasn’t much of an accomplished piano player -- he was a horrible sight reader -- but he was a master composer. His compositions have been featured on everything from The Simpsons and How I Met Your Mother to The Royal Tenenbaums, Dr. Who and The Benny Hill Show, not to mention hundreds of commercials.

Erik Satie ~ Once Upon A Time In Paris (Artwork by Edouard Leon Cortes)

Songs ~ Gymnopedies #1 ~ Gnossiennes #1,3,4,5 ~ Album ~ Satie: Works For Piano Solo And Piano Duet ~ Artist ~ Pianist: Anne Queffelec ~ with artwork by Edouard Leon Cortes Tracks: 0:00 Gymnopedies #1 3:32 Gnossiennes #1 6:52 Gnossiennes #3 9:33 Gnossiennes #4 11:52 Gnossiennes #5

Timeless Melodies & Memories Various Artists GMB

► ► ► Invite you to watch: https://www.facebook.com/onlyinstrume... 1.-Some Enchanted Evening - The Romantic Strings & Orchestra 2.- Love Is A Many any Splendored Thing - The RCA Symphony Orchestra; Charles Gerhardt 3.-Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Hill Bowen 4.-Memories Are Made of This - Ronnie Price with Nick Ingman 5.-Melody of Love - Billy Vaughn 6.-Love Me Tender - Larry Dalton 7.-Mona Lisa - The Dennis Wilson Quartet 8.-True Love - Ronnie Aldrich with The Romantic Strings 9.-Dream A Little Dream of Me - Roger Williams 10.-Try to Remember - Peter Hope 11.-Always - Floyd Cramer 12.-Beautiful Dreamer - The Romantic Strings 13.-The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Ronnie Aldrich 14.-I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me - Paul Weston 15.-Dream of Love ("Liebestraum") - The Romantic Strings 16.-An Affair to Remember - Richard Alden 17.-The Wind Beneath My Wings - Roger Williams 18.-You'll Never Walk Alone - Ronnie Price with Nick Ingman Timeless Melodies & Memories

The Merry Widow Waltz / Falling in Love with Love / The Blue Danube Waltz

The Merry Widow Waltz / Falling in Love with Love / The Blue Danube Waltz (Remastered 2014) · Geraldo and His Orchestra

That Lovely Weekend

℗ 2023 Moonhoney Records

0:03 / 5:06

I Will Wait for You from the Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Michel Legrand et ses rythmes - Topic

9.95K subscribers

78,528 views Oct 18, 2015

Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises I Will Wait for You from the Umbrellas of Cherbourg · The Flemish Radio Orchestra · Michel Legrand Michel Legrand: Great Movie Themes ℗ 2008 Reader's Digest Released on: 2008-08-01 Auto-generated by YouTube.