If the music of Debussy and Ravel is known for its liberating historical leap into a freer, more nuanced palette of sound, the string orchestra arrangements of some of their most well-known pieces add yet another layer.
The natural expressiveness of strings, from the low, rich timbre of the double bass to the suspended shimmer of the violin’s highest register, provides a fascinating canvas upon which we can open up the heady impressionism of the two composers. Debussy’s only String Quartet is followed by the exotic, pagan-tinged story-telling of his Epigraphes, originally written for piano. Barshai’s arrangement for string orchestra of Ravel’s String Quartet in F major, commissioned by SE, is matched with an array of his shorter works to create a beautiful patchwork of textures and colours.
Dream-like music to expand the mind. An escape from the structure of the real into the realm of the imagined…