COMPOSERS: Debussy
LABELS: DG
WORKS: Préludes; Children’s Corner; Images
PERFORMER: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: 449 438-2 AAD/ADD/DDD (1971-88)
A critic once wrote of a pianist: ‘His restraint and discretion make one forget all considerations of technical dexterity. Thus the naked soul of the work is placed before the audience; its action is direct; the interpreter is lost sight of.’ The pianist was Debussy; but how easily could the same be said of Michelangeli. Only in a slightly mannered rendering of ‘La fille aux chevaux de lin’ is one aware of being subjected to an interpretation: all else is a deceptive effortlessness and the spectacle of a gift dedicated not to exposing itself but to the service of the music. Buy it. Christopher Wood
Debussy: Préludes; Children's Corner; Images
A critic once wrote of a pianist: ‘His restraint and discretion make one forget all considerations of technical dexterity. Thus the naked soul of the work is placed before the audience; its action is direct; the interpreter is lost sight of.’ The pianist was Debussy; but how easily could the same be said of Michelangeli. Only in a slightly mannered rendering of ‘La fille aux chevaux de lin’ is one aware of being subjected to an interpretation: all else is a deceptive effortlessness and the spectacle of a gift dedicated not to exposing itself but to the service of the music. Buy it.
Our rating
5
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:28 pm