Score on sale 0-571-52427-3, parts for hire

A year after the Hallé gave the first performance of Three Debussy Preludes, here are two more, to be followed by a further group of three early next year: 8 out of 24 so far! 'Canope' is an Egyptian vase, and the music is solemn and enigmatic – not unlike the opening of Debussy's Martyre de Saint Sebastien. 'Les tierces alternées' seems almost to belong to Debussy's Études rather than to the Preludes, since it is a pianistic study in thirds: it was in fact something of an afterthought as part of Book 2 of the Preludes, replacing a discarded Prelude, 'Tomai des éléphants', from Kipling's 'Jungle Book'. Colin Matthews