Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

Debussy wrote the prelude in 1894 after Mallarmé's eclogue L'après-midi d'un faune, describing it as a free illustration rather than a synthesis of the poem: a series of scenes through which the faun's desires move in the afternoon heat. Gustave Doret conducted the premiere in Paris on 22 December 1894, after a long and difficult rehearsal period. Mallarmé, who had heard the piano version, told Debussy that the music extended the emotion of his poem and coloured it more passionately than words could. Nijinsky's ballet on the score followed in 1912.