Debussy: Early and Late Piano Pieces

Debussy: Early and Late Piano Pieces

CDA 68390 (Hyperion Records, CD)

DDD
FIRST RELEASE (7 October 2022)

Playing time: 73'53"
Tracks: 22
Booklet pages: 19
℗ 2022 Hyperion Records Ltd
© 2022 Hyperion Records Ltd
Main country of recording: United Kingdom
Country of manufacture: Austria
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Debussy: Early and Late Piano Pieces published on 16 November 2022

Steven Osborne, piano

Claude Debussy (1862-1918):

1 Danse bohémienne L4 (1880)

2 Mazurka L75 (c 1890)

Deux Arabesques L74 (c 1890)
3 Andantino
4 Allegretto scherzando

5 Rêverie L76 (1890)

6 Valse romantique L79 (1890)

7 Ballade slave L78 (1890; 'Ballade' for 1903 publication)

Suite bergamasque L82 (c 1890)
8 Prélude
9 Menuet
10 Clair de lune
11 Passepied

12 Tarantelle styrienne L77 (c 1890; 'Danse' for 1903 publication)

13 Nocturne L89 (1892)

Images L94 (1894; 'Images oubliées' for 1978 publication)
14 Lent: Mélancolique et doux
15 Sarabande
16 Quelques aspects de 'Nous n'irons plus au bois'
parce qu'il fait un temps insupportable

17 Pièce pour piano 'Morceau de concours' L117 (1904)

18 Hommage à Haydn L123 (1909)

19 The little nigar 'Cake-walk' L122 (1909)

20 Pièce pour l'œuvre du Vêtement du blessé L141 (1915; 'Page d'album' for 1933 publication)

21 Élégie L146 (1915)

22 Les soirs illuminés par l'ardeur du charbon L150 (1917)

A programme which bridges Debussy's first and last works for piano. Steven Osborne is equally responsive to their very different musical moods. If Clair de lune is much the most familiar work in a programme of early and late piano pieces by Debussy, the rest of the recital is no less rewarding. Steven Osborne has long since proved his affinity with the music of the French master, and this album devoted to shorter works from either end of the composer's creative life is a worthy successor to the previous two.

Recorded 2-4 August 2021 in St Silas the Martyr, Kentish Town, London, UK.