Claude Debussy: Préludes Alexei Lubimov

• Claude Debussy (1862–1918): Préludes Premier Livre (1909/10)
• 1Danseuses de Delphes03:16
• 2Voiles04:00
• 3Le vent dans la plaine02:13
• 4Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir03:31
• 5Les collines d'Anacapri02:53
• 6Des pas sur la neige03:52
• 7Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest03:25
• 8La fille aux cheveux de lin02:28
• 9La sérénade interrompue02:48
• 10La cathédrale engloutie06:08
• 11La danse de Puck02:57
• Nocturnes Transcription for Piano Duet by Maurice Ravel (1909)
• 12Minstrels02:25
• Nocturnes Transcription for Piano Duet by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
• 13Nuages06:49
• 14Fêtes05:49
• 15Sirènes10:54
• Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
• 16Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune08:49
• Préludes Deuxième Livre (1911/12)
• 17Brouillards03:53
• 18Feuilles mortes02:58
• 19La puerta del vino03:28
• 20Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses03:12
• 21Bruyères03:09
• 22General Lavine - excentric02:44
• 23La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune04:12
• 24Ondine03:11
• 25Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C.02:36
• 26Canope03:02
• 27Les tierces alternées02:40
• 28Feux d'artifice04:49
• Total Runtime01:52:11

Info for Claude Debussy: Préludes

Debussy is closer to the expressionism of Schoenberg than to the chiselled sonorities of a Chopin or the extravagant virtuosity of a Liszt, even if his refined art can still be seen in the line of tradition of 19th-century music. This is frequently forgotten in the interpretation as well as the assessment of his oeuvre. Debussy himself decried the concept of musical impressionism because he feared, rightly, that superficial refinement would degenerate into musical mist, concealing the subtleties of a new musical idiom and its structural logic. Thus, for example, instead of heading his 24 “Préludes” in two books with programmatic titles in his autograph score, he appended them at the bottom of the individual pieces. Perhaps, even though their popularity makes it almost impossible, we ought simply to forget about the titles when playing or listening to these pieces and recall something else that Debussy once said: “Music is a free art gushing forth, an open-air art boundless as the elements, the wind, the sky, the sea.” It is in this manner – sans rigeur, as Debussy repeatedly marked his music – that Alexei Lubimov plays the “Préludes”. The recording also contains the “Trois Nocturnes” in Maurice Ravel’s two-piano transcription as well as a two-piano arrangement of Debussy’s seminal orchestral masterpiece, the “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune”.

“I wanted to hear Debussy in a different timbral guise, cloaked in the early 20th century colours that I would find on unique, specially selected instruments… In my search for an inspiring special sound I stumbled upon two excellent pianos that truly seduced me and breathed fresh life into the music… The music revealed itself to me from unknown angles, and like Ulysses bewitched by the Sirens, I let my pianos sing with their own voices and guide me into uncharted realms.” (Alexei Lubimov)

Alexei Lubimov, piano
Alexei Zuev, piano

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Booklet for Claude Debussy: Préludes