Commissioned by the great impresario Serge Diaghilev, Jeux was premièred by the Ballets Russes, choreographed by Vaclav Nijinsky, who danced the lead role.
Jeux - The Art of Nijinsky Photo: Dorothy Mullock [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons
Debussy's innovative score calls for a huge orchestra, but its forces are used with great restraint. The music proceeds like a conversation between flirting lovers, with its own internal logic of glances and gestures, things implied rather than explained. Sadly, its novelty and brilliance was eclipsed by the première of Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring' two weeks later.
Orchestra Wellington conducted by Marc Taddei.
The story of the ballet was devised by Diaghilev and Nijinsky together.
'The scene is a garden at dusk; a tennis ball has been lost; a boy and two girls are searching for it. The artificial light of the large electric lamps shedding fantastic rays about them suggests the idea of childish games: they play hide and seek, they try to catch one another, they quarrel, they sulk without cause. The night is warm, the sky is bathed in pale light; they embrace. But the spell is broken by another tennis ball thrown in mischievously by an unknown hand. Surprised and alarmed, the boy and girls disappear into the nocturnal depths of the garden.'
Recorded 7 July 2017, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert.
Producer: David McCaw
Engineer: Graham Kennedy
Notes: Erica Challis
