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DEBUSSY: Images, Books I-II; Children’s Corner; Suite bergamasque; L’Isle joyeuse – Seong-Jin Cho, piano – DGG

DEBUSSY: Images, Books I-II; Children’s Corner; Suite bergamasque; L’Isle joyeuse – Seong-Jin Cho, piano – DGG

by | Jul 3, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

Seong-Jin Cho’s Debussy recital for DGG confirms his place in the Debussy tradition set by Gieseking and Michelangeli. DEBUSSY: Images, Books I-II; Children’s Corner; Suite bergamasque; L’Isle joyeuse – Seong-Jin Cho, piano – DGG 479 8308, 72:47 (11/17/17)  [Distr. by Universal] *****: South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho (b. 1994) recently appeared for the Steinway Society in the Bay Area, a concert which I attended, so I can well attest to his predilection for the music of Claude Debussy, a product of Cho’s studies at the Paris Conservatory with Michel Beroff. Debussy’s fascination with light has often borne comparison with the paintings of his admired J.M.W. Turner, the master of gradations of visual hues.  So, too, the first set of Images (1905) declares its independence from traditional diatonic harmony and embraces modal and whole-tone scales and sonorities of the East, particularly of the gamelan orchestra of Bali and Indonesia. Debussy relishes the blurring of phrase lengths, and he often eschews resolved chords based on tonal harmony. Cho emphasizes the perfect fifth in the bass chords of Reflets dans l’eau, set in D-flat Major, the opening of which suggests a disturbance in standing water whose ripple effects we follow as they undulate […]

DEBUSSY: Estampes; Images; Children’s Corner Suite; La plus que lente; L’Isle joyeuse – Stephen Hough, piano – Hyperion 

DEBUSSY: Estampes; Images; Children’s Corner Suite; La plus que lente; L’Isle joyeuse – Stephen Hough, piano – Hyperion 

by | Dec 19, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

DEBUSSY: Estampes; Images, Books I-II; Children’s Corner Suite; La plus que lente; L’Isle joyeuse – Stephen Hough, piano – Hyperion CDA68139, 69:25 (1/5/18) [Harmonia mundi/PIAS] **** A potent and sonically resonant all-Debussy album attests to the spectacular technique of Stephen Hough. Having listened to the exotic, even voluptuous, sounds of the gamelan and gong (or metallophone) at the 1899 Exposition Universelle in Paris, Debussy carried within his musical imagination of vast array of potential colors, each of which finds release in his brilliant 1903 suite Estampes (Engravings).  Stephen Hough proves admirably capable of projecting the vibrant, pentatonic energy of the opening Pagodes, set on the keyboard’s black keys. Although Debussy marks the score sans nuance, the effect of ‘distancing’ does not diminish the spectacular wave-like motion—via 2-bar and 4-bar measures—of the piece, as though Balinese dancers had their sensuous reflection in a still pond. For the second of the engravings, Debussy takes us to Spain, as cross-fertilized by Moorish harmony. The lilted habanera rings with Spanish folk idioms across the range of the keyboard.  The languor of the music increases with the strumming of sensuous guitars, moving to a hazy, even lazy, sense of seductive quietude. Hough explodes with a […]

“The Unbroken Line” = DEBUSSY: Images; Preludes; RAMEAU: Castor et Pollux; Nouvelles Suites – Jeffrey LaDeur, piano – MSR Classics

“The Unbroken Line” = DEBUSSY: Images; Preludes; RAMEAU: Castor et Pollux; Nouvelles Suites – Jeffrey LaDeur, piano – MSR Classics

by | Oct 30, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

“The Unbroken Line” = DEBUSSY: Images I; Preludes II; RAMEAU: Selection from Castor et Pollux; Selection from Nouvelles Suites – Jeffrey LaDeur, piano – MSR Classics MS 1654, 69:39 [Distr. by Albany] ****: An interesting concept that rings quite true. Jeffrey LaDeur is a widely performing artist who is also the founder of the noted Delphi Trio and Founder and Artistic Director of the New Piano Collective, a consortium of internationally renowned pianists. Debussy is somewhat in his blood as he returns to Weill Hall in 2018 to commemorate an ongoing survey of the composer’s music in the anniversary of the year of his death. Here he attempts to make, in very erudite album notes, an association of Debussy’s admiration for the music of Rameau, and even his musical construction based upon some of that of the earlier artist. He certainly is correct when asserting that Debussy was interested in maintaining and developing the “pure” French tradition, especially when opposing it to the then pervasive—and some would say, persuasive—influence of Wagner. But I am afraid that the concept fails to emerge in a formidable manner on this disc, simply because there is not enough Rameau here to make the case. […]

DEBUSSY: Masques; … D’un cahier d’esquisses; L’isle joyeuse; Images ; Estampes; Children’s Corner – Steven Osborne, piano – Hyperion

DEBUSSY: Masques; … D’un cahier d’esquisses; L’isle joyeuse; Images ; Estampes; Children’s Corner – Steven Osborne, piano – Hyperion

by | Oct 28, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

DEBUSSY: Masques; … D’un cahier d’esquisses; L’isle joyeuse; Images I; Images II; Estampes; Children’s Corner – Steven Osborne, piano – Hyperion CDA68161, 73:21 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] *****: A long time coming, but well worth the wait. It’s been since 2006 that Steven Osborne released his Debussy Preludes, one of the better sets to come out in the last twenty years, so it’s nice that he has turned his sights on the Frenchman again. This time the album is of a very popular nature, since at least five of the works are among the most played. Masques is from 1904, a much more evasive and subtle work than its companion from the same time, L’isle joyeuse, supposedly a “happy” time indeed as the composer had shipped his wife off to Normandy—and she attempted suicide for the first time that year—while eloping with Emma Bardac. Perhaps this dual pairing is reflected in new-found love in L’isle joyeuse while expressed in Masques, according to his widow, the “tragic expression of existence”—who can say? Either way, Steven Osborne turns in appropriately suitable readings of great expressivity. The 1903 Estampes (the French name for Japanese prints), is thought to be the result of his […]

Elvis Costello – Detour – Live At Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Blu-ray (2016)

Elvis Costello – Detour – Live At Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Blu-ray (2016)

by | Mar 1, 2016 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

Elvis Costello – Detour – Live At Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Blu-ray (2016) New wave auteur goes solo with forty years of worthwhile material. Cast: Elvis Costello with Larkin Poe (Rebecca and Megan Lovell) Studio: Eagle Vision EVB335309 Director: Joss Crowley Audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1; PCM 2.0 Stereo Video: 1.78:1 for 16:9, 1080i HD Color Length: 121 minutes TrackList: Red Shoes; Watch Your Step; Accidents Will Happen; Church Underground; As; Shipbuilding; I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down; Walkin’ My Baby Back Home; Ghost Train; When I Was Cruel No. 2; Watching The Detectives; If I Had A Hammer; Pads, Paws And Claws; That’s Not Part Of Him You’re Leaving; Down On The Bottom; Blame It On Cain; Alison; A Good Year For The Roses; Side By Side; Jimmie Standing In The Rain; Peace Love And Understanding; Golden Tom/Silver Judas Bonus Tracks: Love Field; Either Side Of The Same Town; Brilliant Mistake; Ascension Day Ratings:    Audio: ****   Video: ****                             Elvis Costello got his start in the pub musical scene in England. He rose to some prominence as part of the New Wave vanguard in the […]

Audio News for March 6, 2015

by | Mar 6, 2015 | Audio News

Shout Factory Free Streaming During March; Jazz Producer Orrin Keepnews Dies at 91; Composer John McCabe Dies at 75; Do Sales of Recordings Help Classical Recording Artists?; NextRadio and HD Radio Debut Car Platform

DEBUSSY: Children’s Corner; Suite bergamasque; Danse; Deux Arabesques; Pour le piano; Masques; L’isle joyeuse; La plus que lente – Angela Hewitt, piano – Hyperion DEBUSSY: Préludes, Books 1 and 2 – Philippe Bianconi, p. – la dolce volta “Hommage à Claude Debussy” = DEBUSSY: Images, Books 1 & 2; Estampes; Arabesque No. 1; CARLO GRANTE: Debussy-Pastiche; ALFREDO CASELLA: A la manière de. . .Claude Debussy; DUKAS: La plainte, au loin, du faune; ROBERTO PIANA: Image d’un faune – Carlo Grante, p. – Music & Arts

DEBUSSY: Children’s Corner; Suite bergamasque; Danse; Deux Arabesques; Pour le piano; Masques; L’isle joyeuse; La plus que lente – Angela Hewitt, piano – Hyperion DEBUSSY: Préludes, Books 1 and 2 – Philippe Bianconi, p. – la dolce volta “Hommage à Claude Debussy” = DEBUSSY: Images, Books 1 & 2; Estampes; Arabesque No. 1; CARLO GRANTE: Debussy-Pastiche; ALFREDO CASELLA: A la manière de. . .Claude Debussy; DUKAS: La plainte, au loin, du faune; ROBERTO PIANA: Image d’un faune – Carlo Grante, p. – Music & Arts

by | May 17, 2013 | Classical CD Reviews

Three Debussy releases with something to offer. On points, Angela Hewitt is the winner, but Carlo Grante offers the most interesting program of the three.