Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony since 1995, has form conducting Debussy. One of his earliest recordings was of the Images with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for DG in 1970, and he previously recorded the ballet score Jeux with the London Symphony Orchestra for Sony in 1991.

These two works are among Debussy’s greatest achievements. The centrepiece of Images, a triptych called Iberia, evokes Spain. It follows in the footsteps of older French composers like Bizet and Chabrier but displays a more earthy quality. The other Images are Gigues, a piece that quotes the old Scottish reel, The Keel Row, and Rondes des Printemps, a charming tone picture depicting the French provincial countryside.

The ballet Jeux (1913) was composed for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Initially Debussy thought the scenario trivial: three young adults looking for a lost tennis...