LDV84

24 DEBUSSY_12 ÉTUDES • LE MARTYRE DE SAINT SÉBASTIEN You include in this programme a composition contemporary with the Études , the Élégie of 1915, a sad and resigned piece, as if turned in upon itself. Then comes Les Soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du charbon of 1917, which borrows its title from Baudelaire’s poem Le Balcon , and sounds like a farewell to this sonorousworld and to his ownœuvre; indeed, it includes a quotation from Les Sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir , as if he had to hark back one last time to the Symbolist universe of the Préludes . How do you view this late Debussy and his poignant renunciation of the world? After the short burst of vital energy in the summer of 1915, Debussy’s last great wave of creative activity, he relapsed into the deep depression from which he had suffered since the beginning of the war, reinforced by the inexorable illness that was eating away at him. He composed the Élégie inDecember of that year, when he was about to undergo a serious operation. These few sombre, well-nigh prostrate bars echo that despair, and the grief-stricken and infinitely sad left-hand melody, beneath uncertain harmonies, is one of the most poignant things Debussy ever wrote. For a long time this was thought to be his final farewell to the instrument.