Search - Claude Debussy, Alain Planès :: Debussy: Children's Corner; Suite Bergamasque; Images

Period Debussy!

Mr. Matthew J. Williams | Sydney, NSW Australia | 05/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This recording opens up the authentic Debussy to those with ears to hear. Performed on a 1902 Bluthner, as close as could matter to Debussy's own 1904 model, we can hear how the pioneering soundworld of the composer sounded to him. And how the Steinways have misguided us!



Here we find percussive clarity and ethereality are not, as we might suppose, incompatible. The Bluthner yields Planes a sort of hammered kaleidescope that, I must say, is just a bit addictive, like mountain air in summer. Suddenly all my other Debussy recordings sound wrong: at once insufficiently crisp and insufficiently gossamer.



Of course the piano doesn't do all the work, Planes himself, if not exactly joining the front rank of Debussy interpreters, provides gratefully direct performances with sensitive colouring and stable rhythmic impulses.



This recording is recommended to anyone who wants to discover Debussy, either for the first time, or as though for the first time."

WONDERFUL

G. D. Peterson | San Mateo, CA USA | 04/23/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I listen to a lot of Debussy. I have at least 15 different complete sets of the piano music. This is one of the best. It is an original instruments Debussy played on a turn of the century piano that is perfect. I would rate the performance both charming and vigorous. After two years I have hardly grown tired of it."