Chabrier: España

Debussy: Images for orchestra: II. Ibéria

Massenet: Le Cid: Suite

Ravel: Alborada del gracioso (orchestral version)

‘The East has taken on the form of a generalised preoccupation to the intelligence and to the imagination,’ wrote Victor Hugo in his preface to Orientales in 1829. To the Romantics, the East was certainly much more than a geographical region; it was a concept, an atmosphere, composed of colour and imagery, the borders of which could never be clearly drawn. While Ravel was able to reconnect with his family roots, Chabrier and Massenet discovered Spanish music during their long stay in the Iberian Peninsula. With 'Iberia', meanwhile, Debussy revealed his imaginary impressions of the Iberian world; his only contact with Spain was a short visit to Saint-Sébastien around 1880. The works on this record, some of the finest French-Hispanic music, reveal the Belle Epoque taste for sparkling orchestrations and picturesque gaiety.

“Best of all is Debussy’s Ibéria, which Roth delineates with the painstaking rigour Boulez used to bring to this repertoire, but with twenty times more fun. The conductor is being over-modest and disingenuous when he says the period instruments “told us the right tone to adopt”. Virtuosity and verve shine from every bar of these dazzling live recordings.” The Times