CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918)

 

Complete Works for Piano Volume 3

 

Children’s Corner

Suite bergamasque

Danse Bohémienne

Nocturne

La plus que lent

Mazurka

Rêverie

Deux Arabesques

Morceau de concours

The Little Nigar

Hommage à Haydn

Berceuse Héroïque

Page d’Album

Elegie

 

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet - Piano

 

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet here offers the third volume in his series devoted to the complete works for piano by Debussy. The music now moves to a more playful strand in Debussy’s compositional career, with generally shorter pieces of the salon genre, including the two famous collections Children’s Corner and Suite bergamasque. In addition to these well-known works are several that are more rarely heard. Two such are La plus que lente, which seems to look ahead to the Études of 1915, and Élégie. Roger Nichols describes the former as ‘one of his most delightful pieces…the harmonic turns are particularly sophisticated and enchanting’. The Élégie was written in 1915 following the composer’s move to the coast. The outbreak of the First World War had initially depressed Debussy into a state of creative sterility but the move was to prove most productive. The Élégie was written for a charity and, dedicated to Queen Alexandra, honours the role of women in wartime. It is now rarely performed but Roger Nichols writes, ‘it is one of the composer’s most extraordinary works…and we are left wondering what on earth Debussy would have written in the 1920s and beyond’.

 

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

 

Chandos CHAN10467