Les Heures persanes


Les Heures persanes, Op. 65, is one of the most famous works of the French composer Charles Koechlin.
It is based on the French novelist and traveller Pierre Loti’s Vers Ispahan, detailing his journey across Persia. Koechlin's hour-long work is a series of pieces - condensed into just two-and-a-half days - that captures and distils the scents and sounds of this faraway land.
The Persian Hours includes 16 pieces for piano composed between 1913 and 1919. Koechlin prepared an orchestral version of the piece as well.
The Persian Hours is a difficult work to record. It is an atmospheric work, mostly very slow and dreamy, and except for three or four movements is often extremely quiet. The orchestration is delicate and subtle, and it is entirely typical of Koechlin that although the piece is harmonically extremely audacious for its time, the music is so subdued that its frequent polytonal or atonal basis might not be immediately apparent.

Movements

  1. Sieste, avant le depart
  2. La caravane
  3. L’escalade obscure
  4. Matin frais, dans la haute vallee
  5. En vue de la ville
  6. A travers les rues
  7. Chant du soir
  8. Clair de lune sur les terrasses
  9. Aubade
  10. Roses au soleil de midi
  11. A l'ombre, pres de la fontaine de marbre
  12. Arabesques
  13. Les collines, au coucher du soleil
  14. Le conteur
  15. La paix du soir, au cimetiere
  16. Derviches dans la nuit — Clair de lune sur la place deserte

Instrumentation

The orchestral version of Les Heures persanes is scored for a small orchestra consisting of:
Woodwinds
Brass
Percussion
'''Strings'''