François-Xavier Roth conducts a long-lost early work by Debussy – With Edgar Moreau

After being lost for more than a hundred years, Debussy’s first orchestral suite gets its 21st century premiere under the baton of French maestro François-Xavier Roth! A founder of French modernism and one of the artists that shaped music history, the youthful work bears witness to Debussy’s early harmonic mastery and adventurous tastes in orchestration, qualities that would later make him one of the most imaginative, disruptive, and influential creators at the turn of the 20th century. The program is rounded out by young virtuoso Edgar Moreau’s performance of Lalo's Cello concerto—with its Spanish-flavored rhythmic drive—followed by Massenet's "El Cid" Suite (1885): two works grounded in late 19th-century French tastes for exoticism in general and Spanish music in particular. The overture of Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser, admired by Debussy since his student days, opens the concert.