The Girl with the Flaxen Hair

Impressionist composer Claude Debussy wrote his set of Préludes for the piano between 1909 and 1913. In their entirety, his Préludes total 24 individual pieces in two volumes. It is from these that Karel Deseure has selected fivepreludes for his Cinq Préludes. La fille aux cheveux de lin is probably the most well-known of the five (and Debussy’s 24).Deseure approached each prelude as being musically independent of the others. Consequently, they do not have to be played in a specific order or even as a complete set. It is worth noting that in Debussy’s original edition the titles wereprinted at the end each prelude, almost like a footnote, so the performer could look at themusic without being influenced by Debussy’s descriptive titles. The Préludes also demonstrate Debussy’s superb orchestration skills. Deseure took great care orchestrating these five preludes so he could capture and convey their original character and mood as accurately as possible. The original key signatures were kept and only very minute changes were made to the pitchesthemselves, such as occasional octave doublings to fill out the ensemble.