Debussy, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

The "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" is arguably Debussy's most famous work. Inspired by the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé's eclogue "L'après-midi d'un faune," it evokes a sun-drenched landscape inhabited by nymphs and a sensuous faun. His longing is expressed in the languid flute melody that opens the work. "I truly admire this orchestra and hope it becomes better known abroad," confided Leonard Bernstein in 1989 to the audience in Rome's Auditorio Pio before his concert of works by Claude Debussy (1862-1918) with the prestigious "Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia." In the words of Rome's "Il Giornale," Bernstein served up a "Debussy that is neither ethereal nor shapeless, but uncommonly vital, caught in the full light of noon."