The Philadelphia Orchestra: Songs of the Sea

A native of Indonesia and a Young Scholar of Lang Lang’s International Music Foundation, pianist Janice Carissa will make her SPAC debut performing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major on August 2. Also highlighting the evening under the baton of Stéphane Denève are the Four Sea Interludes from Britten’s opera Peter Grimes and Debussy’s “The Sunken Cathedral,” both appearing at SPAC for the first time Debussy’s musical innovations became closely associated with the Impressionist movement, a term that was initially used pejoratively in connection with Claude Monet’s paintings. Many of Debussy’s pieces were inspired by images and by nature. As he once remarked: “I am trying in some way to do ‘something different’—an effect of reality—what some imbeciles call ‘Impressionism,’ a term that is utterly misapplied, especially by the critics.” In La Mer he offers three meditations on the sea: “From Dawn to Midday at Sea,” “Play of the Waves,” and “Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea.”