Debussy must be the ultimate genius of elusiveness, even when he’s at his most descriptive, not so much in terms of musical utterance but of mood and ambience. In no work is this more apparent than in his ‘Poeme-dansé’ Jeux (Games). Rarely heard in the concert hall, it offers a blend of mystery, initially slightly sinister, and evanescent eroticism, despite the admittedly banal story of a boy and two girls chasing a tennis ball, then each other. In this, Debussy’s last completed score, Roth’s forces, especially the fin-de-siècle woodwind, create magnificently diaphanous textures, somehow also managing to convey the athleticism of the participants.

The Prélude à L’Après-midi d’un Faunedebussy has become Roth’s speciality, and...