Claude Debussy Music Cannot be Learned

Already as a pupil at the Conservatoire, Claude Debussy composed music that did not conform to the theory of the times. He contradicted his teachers by claiming that pleasure was the only valid rule of music, and that the feeling for music could not be learned. This fascinating documentary brings the composer back to life through the writings of relatives and acquaintances such as Eric Satie, George Copeland, Marguerite Long and Igor Stravinsky, as well as those of the composer himself. Numerous carefully selected excerpts from his oeuvre – from the piano works, some performed by Sviatoslav Richter and by Debussy himself, to chamber music, opera and symphonic pieces performed by Sergiu Celibidache and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy – present the wonderful, many-faceted music of Debussy.