18 Feb 2022

DEBUSSY arr Indra Hughes: The Girl with the Flaxen Hair

From Music Alive, 8:03 pm on 18 February 2022

This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions.

Performed by Indra Hughes on the Auckland Town Hall Organ, 13 August 2021.

Indra Hughes

Indra Hughes at Huia Photo: Indra Hughes

This is one of Debussy's most well-known pieces - it comes from his first book of Preludes for the piano.

It was inspired by a poem by Leconte de Lisle, 'La fille aux cheveux de lin', which describes somewhat erotically a young woman sitting in a field of flowers on a cool summer morning.

The colour of her hair is compared to linen or dressed flax (the European flax, not the New Zealand flax) - a pale yellow.

Recorded by RNZ Concert, Auckland Town Hall, 13 August 2021
Producer: Tim Dodd; Engineer: Adrian Hollay