Debussy: Études pour piano (12) (complete)

Pascal Rogé has established a reputation as the world’s foremost interpreter of the French piano repertoire.

His recordings of the music of Erik Satie are unsurpassed after years in the catalogue, and his series for ONYX continues with a 4th volume featuring the 12 Études, among the composer’s masterpieces.

Gramophone said of Rogé’s recording of the Preludes: ‘this disc of the complete Debussy Preludes has all his improvisatory warmth and charm, qualities that can take you to the very heart of the composer’s evanescent world’.

“Bavouzet commands all the shading, nuance and timbral sensitivity one expects in Debussy, together with virtuoso flair and characterful spontaneity.’ (Gramophone), “…there is a balance of clarity and lyricism that immediately distinguish the pianist’s work.” (International Piano) are just a couple of reviews from the previous three volumes of this highly praised recording project. This appraisal of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, an exclusive Chandos artist, affirms his position as one of the greatest Debussy interpreters.

‘We have a lot to learn from Debussy,’ writes Bavouzet. ‘Through the sophisticated sounds he seeks to create and the simplicity of his textures by which he builds, in just a few phrases and harmonies, a whole world of poetry, but also through writing which always reveals a highly contrapuntal way of thinking, Debussy compels us to listen to his music in a very private, intense and nearly religious manner.’

Here Bavouzet completes his cycles with works at the extreme of his pianistic style; Études Books 1 & 2 and Images Books 1 & 2. Étude retrouvée completes the recording. The Images were the product of Debussy the art-lover and derive from his early reading Baudelaire. The Études, on the other hand, look inwards at the properties and possibilities of the musical substance itself. They contain some of Debussy’s most demanding piano writing – five of the twelve were never recorded commercially until after 1950. But, despite their difficulty a playful spirit is very much in evidence.

This series is a deeply personal project for Bavouzet who has been involved in all aspects of the recording process.

This well-filled disc also includes a rarely heard 13th étude, the Étude retrouvée discovered only in 1977. Another late work is Six Épigraphes antiques. These short pieces originated as musical renderings of six poems from Pierre Louÿ’s collection Chansons de Bilitis, purportedly translations of ancient Greek texts by a Greek courtesan. Originally written for two pianos, the Épigraphes were later arranged for a single player by the composer himself. The remaining pieces on the disc come from opposite ends of Debussy’s career. Intermède is the piano version of a movement from his Piano Trio No. 1 from 1880, while Les Soirs illumines from 1917 is Debussy’s last completed work, written as a token of gratitude to his coal merchant, a Monsieur Tronquin, for having provided the household with precious fuel during the wartime winters.

Also available as part of the Debussy - The Piano Works box set, ALC4002.

The Debussy-year 2012 brought a wealth of reissues on the market, but surprisingly few new recordings. Reason the more to welcome this new recording of a generous selection of Debussy piano works, centred around the substantial “12 Etudes”.These works, written in the later stage of Debussy’s creative life, form the apotheosis of his style. Far from any evocative “impressionistic” Tonmalerei or picturesque atmosphere painting they are Debussy’s answer to the Etudes of Chopin, purely abstract creations of melody, harmony and rhythm. Fiercely uncompromising and difficult, they form the summit of Debussy’s piano oeuvre, and one of the highest challenges to any performing pianist. The young Italian pianist Mariangela Vacatello likes challenges, as was convincingly proven by her excellent recording of the Liszt Transcendental Studies (Brilliant Classics): “…poetic and playful, her technique knows no limits..a remarkable artist..” (Piano News) and a “5 Star” review in the German magazine Fono Forum. Liner notes in English and Italian.

The exciting young Italian pianist Mariangela Vacatello is a Liszt specialist, renowned for her passionate performances and technical ability.

She has given concerts at prestigious venues across the USA and Europe, and she has won many awards. These include second prize at the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in 1999, and the Internet Audience Award at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. ‘A very exciting player’ Musical Opinion, 2008. Vacatello’s previous disc of the Transcendental Studies on Brilliant Classics won golden opinions; now she turns to a no less challenging but somewhat more elliptical aesthetic with the late piano music of Debussy. The 12 Etudes move from ironic instruction to fiendish complexity; part satire, part evocation of a lost world. Complementing the Etudes are the more immediately assimilable sets of Estampes and early Arabesques as well as the delightful glitter of L’Isle Joyeuse.

To kick off Fuga Libera’s Debussy year, Jan Michiels has conceived a superb and generous programme to honour the "ultima verba" for piano which Debussy composed during the First World War, and the most significant fragments of the collective tribute rendered to him by some of the masters he had influenced in La Revue musicale of 1920. Apposing his own signature to the cd booklet, Jan Michiels invites us to listen to his wonderful Erard grand piano.

His selection does full justice to the quality of these works which, though less popular than the Préludes and some of the composer’s earlier works, lack nothing in terms of inspiration and insight into the future. The interpolation in the Études – rendered here in full – of the pages by Dukas, Bartók, Roussel, de Falla and Stravinski and the scattered pages signed "Claude Debussy, French composer" between 1914 and 1917, are here particularly compelling: what better tribute could we give this composer on the dawn of the 150th anniversary of his birth?