This double-disc set concludes Planès’ recording of all the solo piano works of Debussy. A variety of short pieces which didn’t fit into the earlier volumes are included here, some very early works, and some never published during Debussy’s lifetime. I studied and played in recital in college a few of these works, but I was unfamiliar with the Images inédites of 1894 which open the program, because it wasn’t published until 1977. The second of the three Images turns out to be a sort of rehearsal for what was to become the Sarabande movement of the Pour le piano suite, which I did play. These Images were also a rehearsal for his later Images orchestral opus; he used the French nursery tune from them in the concluding part of the Images for Orchestra: Rondes de printemps.
The structure of a Baroque suite is followed in Pour le piano, but Debussy is not quoting any early composer’s themes here. Instead, he creates another shade of the whole unique sound-world he conjured up employing only the single voice of the keyboard percussion instrument known as the piano. In the Six Antique Epigraphs he goes back still further in time, creating incidental music which was originally intended to accompany a mimed reciting of some ancient Greek poems. Debussy was strongly influenced by various art – he even said “I like pictures almost as much as music.” Turner, the pre-Raphaelites, and Japanese ukioye were some of his favorites.
The first of the three Estampes demonstrates the fascination during this period with things oriental, which Debussy shared. It is titled Pagodes and is less Japanese than Javanese – stimulated by the composer’s ear-opening exposure to a gamelan orchestra at the 1889 Paris Exposition. Danse and the waltz La plus que lente are two of the most piano exquisite pieces inspired by the dance one could possibly imagine. Planès is a superb Debussy interpreter – bringing out the impressionistic side of the music without smearing anything. And the micing used seems to reduce the usually (for my ears) too metallic treble end of the Steinway timbre. The recording is transparent and preserves perfectly the extensive and complex pedaling which is so vital to the proper performance of Debussy’s piano music. I recall my teacher saying “When you record the piano, avoid using the pedal – the recording process just messes it up and runs everything together.” Well, recording has come some ways since then and it’s no problem, even without the added resolution of DSD reproduction.
– John Sunier
