Classical
Artists and record companies pay fitting tribute to Debussy.
Claude Debussy’s Estampes,
Images, Children’s Corner, and La Mer, Images
Marking 100 years since the death of French composer Claude Debussy, 2018 offers the opportunity to celebrate the sensuous music of this giant of early 20th century modernism. Earlier this year, Warner Classics and Deutsche Grammophon both released handsome boxed sets of his “Complete Works” – collectors’ items allowing exploration of not only Debussy’s orchestral and piano favourites but also many intriguing lesser-known works.
Debussy’s own piano playing was famously individual, with a creative pedalling approach and a remarkably delicate touch. French pianist Marguerite Long recounted his advice that “one must forget that the piano has hammers”. Luckily, in 1913, Debussy played 14 of his piano works on a contraption called the Welte-Mignon reproducing piano, which recorded nuances of performance including phrasing, dynamics and pedalling. Warner Classics included these piano rolls as a fascinating bonus 33rd disc in its beautifully packaged set.
Since the two tribute collections were released, other artists and record companies have risen to the occasion. Stephen Hough brings his perfectly balanced pianism to a selection of favourites that reveal Debussy’s glorious use of colour, harmonic innovations and the influence of his encounter with Javanese gamelan at the Paris Exhibition in 1889.
Hough opens with the three Estampes, the second of which, La soirée dans Grenade, was included in Debussy’s 1913 recordings.
The two sets of Images follow and it would be difficult to better Hough’s liquid, glistening playing of the first of these, Reflets dans l’eau. Debussy is very specific in his score markings and Hough’s playing combines meticulous care about details with apparently careless freedom.
In the six short pieces of the popular Children’s Corner Suite, Hough finds all the humour and variety needed. He tosses off the light-hearted waltz La plus que lente with rippling ease and L’isle joyeuse ends the disc with dazzling virtuosity. The Orchestre national de France, under music director Emmanuel Krivine, has released a disc with Debussy’s La Mer and his late orchestral triptych, Images. Subtitled Three symphonic sketches, La Mer is one of Debussy’s most performed works. The movements have poetic titles, “From dawn to noon on the sea”, “Play of the waves” and “Dialogue of the wind and the sea”, but description is not the intention of the music, which unfolds with the unpredictability of the ocean. Debussy objected to being called an “impressionist” and this performance never obscures details in a blurry haze, instead capturing the whimsy and grandeur with seamless clarity. Here and in Images, Krivine’s tempo management is masterly and the French orchestra revels in Debussy’s colourful orchestration. The Images are peopled with folk dancers, gypsy fiddlers, castanets and the ironic Debussy of the Children’s Corner Suite. His exquisite French romanticism and delicious orchestral lightness remind us of Debussy’s revolutionary role in Western music history.