Debussy COMPLETE PIANO WORKS VOLUME 2 PRÉLUDES, BOOK II · IMAGES, II · SUITE BERGAMASQUE ALESSANDRA AMMARA CLAUDE DEBUSSY 1862—1918 The works of Debussy are usually classified under the umbrella of Impressionism and Symbolism. Despite his great love for the paintings of COMPLETE PIANO WORKS – VOLUME 2 Claude Monet, Debussy always considered Impressionist ‘a term used with extreme inaccuracy, especially by art critics’. In 1913 Debussy distanced Images, Book II himself from the Impressionist movement when he wrote that only music, of 1. I. Cloches à travers 10. VII. La terrasse des audiences all arts, could really come close to nature, while painting and sculpture are les feuilles 4’25 du clair de lune 4’12 ill-suited to capture her true essence. 2. II. Et la lune descend sur 11. VIII. Ondine 4’07 So could we talk about Symbolism, when it comes to Debussy? Debussy le temple qui fut 5’21 12. IX. Hommage à S. Pickwick often drew inspiration from Symbolist poets, above all Verlaine and Mallarmé. 3. III. Poissons d’or 4’25 Esq. P.P.M.P.C. 2’39 However, not even this definition is satisfactory when it comes to Debussy’s 13. X. Canope 3’11 poetry. Préludes, Book II 14. XI. Les tierces alternées 2’46 The music of Debussy offers us multiple universes, without ever favouring 4. I. Brouillards 3’05 15. XII. Feux d’artifice 4’44 one over the other. He saw the ‘environmental mystery in which things are 5. II. Feuilles mortes 2’50 immersed’. If men are surrounded by symbols, Debussy was concerned 6. III. La puerta del vino 3’41 Suite bergamasque with those which pertain to the natural sphere. He did not indulge, to quote 7. IV. “Les fées sont d’exquises 16. I. Prélude 4’23 Jankélévitch, ‘in listening to his own heart, like Gustav Mahler, but instead to danseuses” 3’27 17. II. Menuet 4’51 the creaking of the branches’. 8. V. Bruyères 2’37 18. III. Clair de lune 5’01 The natural element is, in Debussy, eternally static and inconsolable. He 9. V. “Général Lavine” 19. IV. Passepied 3’26 seemed to stand in awe in front of the phenomenon of life itself: at a moment —eccentric 2’36 in history when there did not seem to be any time to stop and contemplate a reflection in the water, dead leaves or footsteps in the snow. Debussy managed to create in his compositions a sense of time, which is infinite. This is a revolutionary operation: Debussy looked at things like a man whose eyes are not clouded by ordinary habits. He did not aim to project into natural things Alessandra Ammara piano his own subjectivity. If someone speaks about an inexpressive vision of reality, it is precisely because Debussy sought to abandon every type of Wagnerism and to find a musical gesture free from any expressive redundancy. The second book of Images was published two years apart from the inspired Debussy’s Ondine. Furthermore, Feux d’artifice refers to the French first volume (1907). Debussy took another step along his path towards celebrations of Bastille Day, while “General Lavine” - eccentric is a homage to abstraction, with his music getting flimsier and more inconsistent and the the American clown Edward Lavine; La puerta del vino might be inspired by outlines even more blurred. In this collection Debussy applied for the first a postcard of the famous door in the Alhambra in Granada, sent to Debussy time three pentagrams in the score. The Cloches à travers les feuilles is a by Manuel de Falla. piece inspired by the tolling church bells in a little village in Rahon, France, The first Prélude, Brouillards, showcases an ongoing dialectic between homeland of Debussy’s dear friend Louis Laloy. The bells of the title appear sound and silence; its five sections are built upon the opposition between the at the beginning of the piece; this rarefied image is then cut short by a melody, developed within the centre of the keyboard, and the accompanying virtuoso central section. The second Image, Et la lune descend sur le temple part, ranging from the lower to the upper keys. Feuilles mortes, similar qui fut, too, is linked to Laloy, to whom the piece is also dedicated. The to Brouillards, is a study of the timbral possibilities of the piano: in the atmosphere is meditative, almost suggesting the beholding of an ancient central part of the Prélude as many as four different qualities of sound temple under the moonlight. Poissons d’or, with its unstable and gushing are intertwined. La puerta del vino is, in all respects, a Spanish piece; the vivacity, evokes precisely the sudden movements of the fish, which glide characteristic rhythm of the habanera is elegantly combined with the vocal rapidly and lightly in the water. flourishes in Andalusian style, performed by the right hand. InLes fées sont d’exquises danseuses the persistent use of trills aims to evoke none other The second book of Préludes was completed in the year 1913, after three than the fairies introduced in the title. Bruyères, together with La terrasse des years of hard work. Debussy continued to develop his harmonic research, audiences du clair de lune, is more in line with Debussy’s early production. which he had already started in his first volume, but pushing himself to The Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C. is built upon two different musical unprecedented limits. In the second book Debussy wrote almost exclusively ideas, the first one (grave) developed on the notes of the British National on three staves, revealing actively in the score his search for variety of timbre Anthem, and the second one (amabile) standing conversely for Mr. Pickwick. and distinction of colours. Canope, as the title says, re-evokes the ancient Egyptian funerary world. The In line with the first volume, each Prélude builds on poetic images, often music is slowly paced and doucement triste, the second theme is drawn from related to literary works: Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C. evokes the famous Prélude a l’Après-midi d’un Faune. Les tierces alternées is, on the Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers; Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses, on other hand, a Prélude in which melody is almost completely absent and the the other hand, is taken from one of Arthur Rackam’s illustrations for J. M. alternating thirds contribute to the sense of fragmentation of the piece. In Barrie’s Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens; another of Rackham’s illustrations, Ondine, as in the final Feux d’artifice, this is taken to the limit: the arpeggios this time from the novel of the same name by La Motte-Fouqué, might have and the glissandos prevent the reaching of a harmonic stability. The Suite Bergamasque, initially published in 1891, but resumed by Debussy in 1905, is, as the title suggests, a collection of pieces inspired by traditional and popular dances. The term bergamasque refers to a poem by Verlaine, Clair de lune, to which Debussy explicitly pays tribute in the title of one of the four pieces. The Prélude is reminiscent of the compositions of Couperin and Rameau, the French harpsichordists Debussy adored. Here the staccato chords and the flourishes imitate the style of the eighteenth-centurytoccatas , albeit with an unexpected and ground-breaking timbral structure. The Menuet is a dance in its true sense: even though it does not follow the typical structure of the Minuetto (AABB), rhythmic and melodic elements evoke the ancient dance. Interestingly, Debussy also resorts, in a few bars, to the Gregorian mode. Clair de lune is without a doubt the most notorious piece out of Debussy’s entire pianistic production. Out of the blue, Debussy inserts a contrasting suspension compared to the Prélude and the Menuet: everything is still, the music becomes quite introspective and lyrical. After the presentation of the first theme, in tempo rubato, a more passionate and agitated section appears, gradually fading at the end. Finally, the Passepied, resuming a Breton dance, develops a melody that derives from the Javan gamelan, which Debussy had heard at the Universal Exposition in Paris in the year 1889. Artin Bassiri Tabrizi ALESSANDRA AMMARA Alessandra Ammara has drawn the attention of the musical world from a young age, succeeding in major international piano competitions such as the “J. Iturbi” in Valencia, the “Casagrande” in Terni, “G. B. Viotti” in Vercelli, and the “Van Cliburn” in Fort Worth. In 2000 she was awarded “Laureate” by the “Esther Honens” international piano competition in Calgary, Canada. Ms. Ammara’s concert highlights include performances at Grosses Philharmonie in Berlin, Salzburg Grosse Festspielhaus, Musikverein in Vienna, Salle Cortot in Paris, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Gasteig in Munich, Jack Singer Hall in Calgary, Bass Hall in Fort Worth and Meridian Center in Washington. She has thrilled audiences as soloist with orchestras such as Wiener Symphoniker, Berliner Symphoniker, Orchestra Sinfonica della Rai, Calgary Philharmonic, Cape Town Philharmonic with conductors like Fabio Luisi, Georg Pehlivanian, Roberto Minczuk, Bernard Labadie, En Shao, Lior Shambadal. Since 1999 she has formed a piano duo with her husband Roberto Prosseda. The duo recorded Mendelssohn’s complete woks for piano duet (Decca, 2015). Ms. Ammara’s discography includes albums dedicated to Chopin, Scelsi, Schumann, Ravel. Together with some of the greatest pianists in the world, she recorded the new complete Chopin edition produced by Brilliant Classics. For the same label, Ms. Ammara recorded an album dedicated to the Italian composer Roffredo Caetani (1871 – 1961) in 2014. Recorded at Fazioli Concert Hall, Sacile, Italy, April 9 – 12, 2018 Piano Fazioli F 278 “Mago Merlino” Piano tuner: Job Wijnands.