Thiollier - DEBUSSY: Clair de lune and other Piano Favourites [CD]

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Claude Debussy (1862-1918)Clair de lune and other favourite piano worksDebussy was born in 1862 in St Germain-en-Laye, the son of ashop-keeper who was later to turn his hand to other activities, with varyingsuccess. He started piano lessons at the age of seven and continued two yearslater, improbably enough, with Verlaine's mother-in-law, allegedly a pupil ofChopin. In 1872 he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he abandoned the planof becoming a virtuoso pianist, turning his principal attention to composition.In 1880, at the age of eighteen, he was employed by Tchaikovsky's patronessNadezhda von Meck as tutor to her children and house-musician. On his return tothe Conservatoire he entered the class of Bizet's friend Ernest Guiraud and in1883 won the second Prix de Rome. In 1884 he won the first prize, the followingyear reluctantly taking up obligatory residence, according to the terms of theaward, at the Villa Medici in Rome, where he met Liszt. By 1887 he was back inParis, winning his first significant success in 1900 with Nocturnes and goingon, two years later, to a succ?\xbfs de scandale with his opera Pelleas etMelisande, based on the play by Maurice Maeterlinck, a work that establishedhis position as a composer of importance.Debussy's personal life brought some unhappiness in hisfirst marriage in 1899 to a mannequin, Lily Texier, after a liaison of someseven years with Gabrielle Dupont and a brief engagement in 1894 to the singerTher?\xbfse Roger. His association from 1903 with Emma Bardac, the wife of a bankerand a singer of some ability, led eventually to their marriage in 1908, afterthe birth of their daughter three years earlier. In 1904 he had abandoned hiswife, moving into an apartment with Emma Bardac, and the subsequent attempt atsuicide by the former, who had shared with him many of the difficulties of hisearly career, alienated a number of his friends. His final years were darkenedby the war and by cancer, the cause of his death in March 1918, when he leftunfinished a planned series of chamber music works, only three of which hadbeen completed.As a composer Debussy must be regarded as one of the mostimportant and influential figures of the earlier twentieth century. His musicallanguage suggested new paths to be further explored, while his poetic andsensitive use of the orchestra and of keyboard textures opened still morepossibilities. His opera Pelleas et Melisande and his songs demonstrated a deepunderstanding of poetic language, revealed by his music, expressed in termsthat never overstated or exaggerated.It is difficult to hear [1] Clair de lune (Moonlight) withnew ears, so familiar did it become, even in Debussy's lifetime. Poetic andevocative, it suggests the nostalgic world conjured up by Verlaine in his F?\xactesgalantes and formed part of Debussy's Suite bergamasque written between 1890and 1905.[2] La plus que lente, a waltz that is slower than a slowwaltz, dates from 1910 and has the direction Molto rubato con morbidezza, ahint

Clair De Lune

La Plus Que Lente

Arabesque No.1

Le Petit Negre

The Snow Is Dancing

The Little Shepherd

Golliwog's Cakewalk

La Soiree Dans Grenade

Jardins Sous La Pluie

Arabesque No.2

Valse Romantique

Danse (Tarantelle Styrienne)

Toccata

Reflets Dans L'eau

Poissons D'or

Mazurka

Reverie

La Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin

Minstrels

La Cathedrale Engloutie