On this Blu-Ray, Daniele Gatti conducts three works, all linked by the theme of nature, which embody the great musical changes around 1900: Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and La mer, and Igor Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps.

After their premiere by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, all three works immediately found favour with audiences and critics thanks to their exceptionally beautiful and imaginative orchestration, and quickly became part of the standard repertoire.

Four years before his death, in 1914, Debussy himself conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra in his Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and was greeted by an applauding crowd at the stage door after the performance. Stravinsky made his first guest appearance with this orchestra in 1924 and returned regularly thereafter. In 1926 he conducted his Sacre twice in a single day to long and loud applause.