A facinating programme concept, evoking the unique athmosphere of Paris at the beginning of the 20th century - a melting pot of styles, cultures and trends.

In the early 20th century, Paris was a magnet for composers, who were drawn to the city by the powerful influence of Claude Debussy. Termed ‘impressionist’, a label the composer never approved of, Debussy’s music (like that of his younger contemporary Ravel) is full of colouristic expression and textures, which held a significant appeal to a younger generation of musicians.

His influence on composers such as Manuel de Falla, Hector Villa-Lobos, Joaquín Rodrigo and Joaquín Turina led to a remarkable fusion of French musical language (as developed by Debussy) and Spanish (or Latin American) folk music idioms. This collection of works by seven composers celebrates this unique blend of styles and its realisation in guitar compositions, using Manuel de Falla’s Homenaje (Hommage à Debussy) as a starting point, a musical elegy (or tombeau) composed following Debussy’s death in 1918. The influence of Debussy can also be heard in Villa-Lobos’s Etudes Nos 7 and 12, while Rodrigo and Sauget’s works are tributes to de Falla.

The fascinating repertoire collected together in this unique programme is brought to life by a skilled performance from Netherlands Music Prize winner Izhar Elias, and sheds light on the profound influence that Debussy’s music had on the generation of composers that followed him.