A standard question on music history tests asks which composer first wrote a piece called a “Nocturne.” While those by Frédéric Chopin for solo piano are the best known, the honor goes to the English composer John Field, who introduced the label with a set of three pieces published in 1815. With the title evoking a nighttime atmosphere, Field’s pieces emphasize tranquility, structural simplicity, and free, at times highly embellished lyricism; Chopin developed the genre further with his rich ear for harmony and greater command of the piano’s resources. As character pieces, nocturnes tend to be modest in scope, with examples for solo piano vastly outnumbering those for orchestra or other large forces. A celebrated early example in an orchestral setting, however, is found in Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring one of the repertoire’s most famous horn solos.
Debussy’s best-known orchestral pieces are the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and La Mer, but his Nocturnes are no less evocative, colorful, and masterfully scored than those masterworks. Nuages (Clouds) uses mysteriously shifting wind and string harmonies to suggest an overcast sky at dusk, with the English horn repeatedly intoning a forlorn plea for companionship. Consistent with the muted shades of gray that would visually characterize such a setting, the movement rarely ventures from the quiet end of the dynamic spectrum and uses only a subset of the orchestra’s resources – employing, for instance, only three horns while ignoring the other eight brass instruments on stage. Fêtes (Festivals) is decidedly more upbeat, interpreting the association of “nighttime” more broadly to depict an evening of revelry. Shimmering triplets bounce about the orchestra at the beginning and end of the movement, while the central section completes the picture with a visit from an impressionistic military band. These first two movements are often performed alone, as they are this evening. Sirènes (Sirens), however, is the most evocative of the three, adding to the orchestra a wordless, sixteen-voice female choir to capture the haunting call of the dangerously seductive sea nymphs of mythology.