La Mer by Claude Debussy is part of the DNA of the OSR, which played this masterpiece in its first season in 1918. It was also the first work recorded by our orchestra for the DECCA label in 1947 for the 78 rpm. , then re-recorded three times as technical progress was made which fascinated Ernest Ansermet. This program devoted to nature, not to say frankly ecological and in tune with the times, will continue on a more peaceful sea evoked by Goethe and set to music in the manner of a masterpiece by Mendelssohn in his overture of Mer calme et heureux voyage. “Seeing the day rise is more useful than hearing the 'Pastoral' Symphony wrote Claude Debussy, no doubt for the pleasure of making a joke. Yet it remains one of the most original works of its author. Perhaps influenced by The Seasons of his master Haydn, it evokes an ideal nature in the manner of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that Beethoven knew through the writings of the great German poet Klopstock.