Debussy: Suite Bergamasque

“The latest disc in Naxos’s survey of Debussy’s orchestral music is one for a sunny day when you haven’t a care in the world... The Suite bergamasque with the Clair de lune movement, the charming Petite Suite and a movement from the B minor Symphony are all idiomatically played.” The Telegraph, 19th May 2011 ***

“Some of the orchestral versions in Vol 6 are probably just as well known as their keyboard originals, particularly Busser's of the Petite Suite, done with the utmost finesse...Robin Holloway's 2002 version of En blanc et noir breathes Debussian air, as does Tony Finno's realisation of the early Symphony” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011

“If trying to rethink Debussy's sublimely idiomatic piano writing in orchestral terms isn't challenging enough, to make it sound like an orchestral original borders on the impossible. Yet miraculously, this is just what Jun Märkl achieves...He makes En blanc et noir sound even more alluring than in its two-piano original, while an early symphonic movement that originally never got beyond piano-duet scoring emerges like liquid gold.” Classic FM Magazine, July 2011 *****

“They capture perfectly the flash and dazzle of the Suite bergamasque, particularly in the high-voltage opening and closing movements, and charm us with the graceful Petite Suite and Printemps.” The Observer, 19th June 2011

“Jun Märkl treats [the piano] as a secondary percussion instrument and the result is surprisingly effective. [En blanc et noir] sounds not merely like Debussy, but like late Debussy, and Holloway's few additions consistently enhance the spirit of the original.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 ****

“In many ways, Debussy's piano music finds its rightful home on the harp. Apart from the distinctive textural and colouristic elements in the writing itself, we have contemporary accounts of Debussy's piano-playing that refer to his ability to make you forget a piano even had hammers.
Of course, this doesn't allow for dreamy, 'impressionistic' interpretations; rather, it makes clarity and precision absolute imperatives – which qualities we find in abundance in this recital by Xavier de Maistre and friends.
Perhaps realising that you can have too much of a good thing, de Maistre has chosen to include among the many solo works here a selection of mélodies and the two Danses for harp and strings.
All, with the exception of the Danses and the Deux Arabesques, were transcribed by de Maistre himself.

Soprano Diana Damrau is broadly expressive in the mélodies, if occasionally strident in tone; her 'Mandoline' is suffused with a playful urgency that contrasts nicely with the earnestness of 'Le lilas'. Some of de Maistre's colleagues from the Vienna Philharmonic join him in the two dances; the playing is bold and carefree, the well judged crescendo in the Danse profane a delightful way to end this magical disc.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“De Maistre's playing throughout is both robust and delicate; his ability to recall the percussiveness of the piano when necessary… is most impressive. Elsewhere, finely cascading scales and glassy, rippling figurations are offset by sensitively brushed chords...Xavier de Maistre is a virtuoso of the highest order, profoundly musical and capable of realising a remarkable range of nuance” Gramophone Magazine, August 2008

“This third volume confirms Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's winning affinity for Debussy's music. Such familiar pieces as the Suite bergamasque, Deux Arabesques or Children's Corner come across with their colours luminous, their ideas voiced fluently and the moods atmospherically fixed.” The Telegraph, 31st May 2008

“Fiercely energised yet superfine, his performances are not for those with comfortable drawing-room notions of Debussy.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2008

“…this delightful disc places Debussy's two most modest cycles (Children's Corner and Suite bergamasque) within a broadly chronological sequence of pieces spanning the composer's career.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008 *****

“Volume 3 of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's superb Debussy cycle links mostly early miniatures with the Suite bergamasque and Children's Corner.
Once more he turns conventional notions of 'impressionism' topsy-turvy, cleansing Debussy of years of dust and accretion and recreating him in every bar in a sparkling and pristine light.
Fiercely energised yet superfine, his performances are not for those with comfortable drawing- room notions of Debussy, and rarely in my experience has a pianist so faultlessly or precisely achieved his aims.
All sentimentality is erased from the Nocturne's enchanting evanescence and just when he momentarily has you wishing that his formidable directness would melt into something more heart-easing, he makes you gasp at his flawless balance of sense and sensibility. He makes something audaciously epic out of Hommage à Haydn and the startling hesitancy in the opening of 'The Snow is Dancing' is convincing rather than idiosyncratic.
His recital ends on a desolating note with the Berceuse héroïque's phantom battle-cries and bugle-calls memorably evoked. The superbly recorded disc includes his own remarkable essay.
This could well be the finest and most challenging of all Debussy piano cycles.
A greater study in contrast in 'composer and interpreter' would be hard to imagine then between Bavouzet and Pascal Rogéacute;. Where Bavouzet breaks out into blazing Mediterranean sunlight, Rogéacute; (radically enriching his earlier Decca Debussy discs) is happy to withdraw into shadow-land. Time and again his playing suggests emotion recollected in tranquillity rather than turmoil; and in, say, 'Hommage à Rameau' or the Sarabande from Pour le piano he discovers the mysterious, still centre of Debussy's art.
'Poissons d'or' is a marvellous distillation of indolence and flashing disruption, and 'Mouvement' is a perky and vivacious rejoinder to all former introspection. And so too is the Toccata, played with unerring ease and grace, and with many ear-catching details.
To summarise, the ever-elusive truth lies somewhere between Rogéacute; the dreamer, Bavouzet the sinewy but always musical athlete, Thibaudet, the teasing wit and sophisticate and, of course, the legendary Gieseking. You pays your money and you takes your choice…” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Debussy playing does not come any better than this” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Everything is beautifully phrased, and Pascal Rogé has a fabulous touch, difficult passagework often pouring out of him like a stream of glittering gemstones.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2007 ***

“A model of piano recording” Daily Telegraph

“Jean-Yves Thibaudet's Debussy cycle is a cornucopia of delights. The 12 Etudes could hardly be presented more personally or vivaciously. Nos 6 and 7 are marvels of bright-eyed irony and humour, while Nos 8 and 9 contrast a haunting alternation of lassitude and hyperactivity with razor-sharp cascades of repeated notes. His timing in the central lento, molto rubato of No 12 is memorably acute; throughout, you're aware of a pianist with a penchant for spare pedalling and a refined brilliance, far remote from, say, Gieseking's celebrated, opalescent magic. He takes a brisk hand to the Children's Corner suite (allegro rather than allegretto in 'Serenade for the Doll', hardly modérément animé in 'The Snow is Dancing') but even here his spruce technique and vitality are never less than enlivening. In the Suitebergamasque he dances the 'Menuet' with an unusual sense of its underlying grace and gravity, and his 'Clair de lune' is exceptionally silvery and transparent. Both books of Images are given with a rare sense of epiphany or illumination, of flashing fins and sunlight in 'Poissons d'or' and of a timeless sense of archaism in 'Hommage à Rameau'.
Decca's presentation and sound are, respectively, lavish and natural. If you want to hear Debussy new-minted, with air-spun and scintillating textures, Thibaudet is your man.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Howat plays with intelligence and elegance, using the pedal skillfully to produce a variety of nicely shaded tone colors in unmannered performances, with a good sense of form.” American Record Guide, November 2000

“This is a truly distinguished set of Debussy recordings, worthy, in my view, to take their place amongst the very finest on disc. Not only do they throw much new light on very celebrated music, they also contain much which is hard to find recorded anywhere else. Above all, there is sensitivity and vibrant imagination, allied to a transcendental technique always at the service of the music.” MusicWeb International