Album review: Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth, Debussy: La Mer, Première Suite d'Orchestre (Musicales Actes Sud/ Harmonia Mundi)

Usually, period-instrument performance involves the wielding of antiquaria like sackbut and theorbo in renaissance settings.

But for the French orchestra Les Siècles when playing Debussy, it's a matter of subtler differentials imposed by specific instrument makers – notably in the wind section, where Buffet-Crampon bassoons, clarinets and sarrusophones, Lorée oboes and cor anglais, and Raoux-Millereau horns lend a full, rich texture to this interpretation of “La Mer”. But the accompanying “Première Suite D'Orchestre” is the more interesting piece here, a world premiere recording of a long-lost early suite.

Download: Première Suite d'Orchestre; La Mer