An extraordinary rendition of Debussy’s piano preludes, played not note-by-note but shape-by-shape, colour-by-colour. The attention to detail is painstaking — notes seem to bend, individual attacks to melt, and the music moves effortlessly between scintillating fire and lakes of calm. The pauses in the music are perfectly controlled: look here, they seem to say, with the minutest gestures, look here at this unbelievable passage.
The complaint is sometimes made that this recording is a bit too “harsh”, even “romantic”, but this sort of criticism misses the point a little. It seems to assume that impressionistic music is meant to be placid, reflective, maybe even dainty, but that’s not really the point. Impressionistic music (if you are happy to go along with the term) is meant to make you *imagine* something — to evoke some kind of image. It might be an image of calm, or of roiling violence, but it’s the image — the sharpness of its contours — which matters, and by that standard this is a recording for the ages.
Book 1:
00:00 – 1. Lent et grave (…Danseuses de Delphes, Dancers of Delphi)
03:33 – 2. Modéré (…Voiles, Sails/Veils)
07:59 – 3. Animé (…Le vent dans la plaine, The Wind in the Plain)
10:05 – 4. Modéré (…«Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir», “The sounds and fragrances swirl through the evening air”)
13:59 – 5. Très modéré (…Les collines d’Anacapri, The Hills of Anacapri)
17:30 – 6. Triste et lent (…Des pas sur la neige, Footsteps in the Snow)
21:49 – 7. Animé et tumultueux (…Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest, What the West Wind has Seen)
24:59 – 8. Très calme et doucement expressif (…La fille aux cheveux de lin, The Girl with the Flaxen Hair)
28:06 – 9. Modérément animé (…La sérénade interrompue, Interrupted Serenade)
30:32 – 10. Profondément calme (…La cathédrale engloutie, The Submerged Cathedral)
37:52 – 11. Capricieux et léger (…La danse de Puck, Puck’s Dance)
40:26 – 12. Modéré (…Minstrels)
Book 2
42:46 – 1. Modéré (…Brouillards, Mists)
46:12 – 2. Lent et mélancolique (…Feuilles mortes, Dead Leaves)
50:02 – 3. Mouvement de Habanera (…La puerta del Vino, Wine Door)
53:07 – 4. Rapide et léger (…«Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses», “Fairies are exquisite dancers”)
56:18 – 5. Calme (…Bruyères, Heather/Town in Eastern France)
59:21 – 6. Dans le style et le mouvement d’un Cakewalk (…Général Lavine – eccentric)
1:01:51 – 7. Lent (…La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune, The Terraces of Moonlight Audiences)
1:06:16 – 8. Scherzando (…Ondine)
1:09:37 – 9. Grave (…Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C., Homage to S. Pickwick)
1:11:58 – 10. Très calme et doucement triste (…Canope, Canopic Jar)
1:15:06 – 11. Modérément animé (…Les tierces alternées, Alternating Thirds)
1:17:47 – 12. Modérément animé (…Feux d’artifice, Fireworks)