Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie is one of two concertante works completed premiered and published during his lifetime. He was commissioned to write it in 1909 for the final examination at the Paris Conservatoire in 1910. Debussy orchestrated it in the summer of 1911. While transferring the clarinet part from the already published version for clarinet and piano he made a few subtle changes particularly in m. 201 which has been a bone of contention among clarinettists for over a century.The present scholarly-critical publication is the first Urtext edition of the orchestral version. It draws on every known source and takes into account a previously ignored source that shedsnew light on the piece.First Urtext edition of the orchestral versionFirst scholarly-critical edition of a pioneering work for clarinetTrilingual Foreword (Eng/Fr/Ger) with Critical Commentary (Eng)

Martin Cooper writes 'The concerto has a dashing first movement marked by jazz memories and a lento whose wistful melancholy also suggests the sentimental lyrical style of the 1930s. The leap from this to the crude whooping and the stomping rhythms of the finale was irresistible. . .'Daily Telegraph 12 October 1976