Debussy: Preludes, Vol. 1 / L'isle joyeux

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Maurizio Pollini brings cool elegance and unflappable sheen to Debussy's Preludes Book One. He contours the dynamics with micromanaged aplomb, and achieves ravishing pedal effects in the more meditative selections. One can't find fault with the pianist's well-oiled fingerwork and beautifully modulated sonority. Yet the music's evocative, dreamlike qualities elude Pollini's protean grasp, especially compared to Arrau's robust inflections, Paul Jacobs's aching poetry, and Zaidee Parkinson's haunting rumination. Pollini dispatches the neo-Lisztian hurdles of L'Isle Joyeuse with efficient ease, holding himself aloof from the orgiastic abandon characterizing more memorable readings from Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Vladimir Horowitz, and Walter Gieseking. DG's engineering is resplendent and well-focused. --Jed Distler

Tracks:

Preludes: 1st Livre: I. Danseuses de Delphes: Lent et grave
Preludes: 1st Livre: II. Voiles: Modere
Preludes: 1st Livre: III. Le vent dans la plaine: Anime
Preludes: 1st Livre: IV. Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir: Modere
Preludes: 1st Livre: V. Les collines d'Anacapri: Tres modere
Preludes: 1st Livre: VI. Des pas sur la neige: Triste et lent
Preludes: 1st Livre: VII. Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest: Anime et tumultueux
Preludes: 1st Livre: VIII. La fille aux cheveux de lin: Tres calme et doucement expressif
Preludes: 1st Livre: IX. La serenade interrompue: Moderement anime
Preludes: 1st Livre: X. La cathedrale engloutie: Profondement calme
Preludes: 1st Livre: XI. La danse de puck: Capricieux et leger
Preludes: 1st Livre: XII. Minstrels: Modere
L'ISLE JOYEUSE: L'Isle joyeuse: Modere et tress souple

Amazon.com

Maurizio Pollini brings cool elegance and unflappable sheen to Debussy's Preludes Book One. He contours the dynamics with micromanaged aplomb, and achieves ravishing pedal effects in the more meditative selections. One can't find fault with the pianist's well-oiled fingerwork and beautifully modulated sonority. Yet the music's evocative, dreamlike qualities elude Pollini's protean grasp, especially compared to Arrau's robust inflections, Paul Jacobs's aching poetry, and Zaidee Parkinson's haunting rumination. Pollini dispatches the neo-Lisztian hurdles of L'Isle Joyeuse with efficient ease, holding himself aloof from the orgiastic abandon characterizing more memorable readings from Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Vladimir Horowitz, and Walter Gieseking. DG's engineering is resplendent and well-focused. --Jed Distler

Customer Reviews:

Non French pianist talks musique francais perfectly.......2006-04-25

I had believed musique francais played by non French musicians does not deserve to listen to for very long time, for over ten years. I have so many favorites non French musicians but when they play French music, it is music but not musique francais. I had been seeing there is much difference between played by French and by non French. I don't still figure out why, anyway.

However when I listen to this CD, what I felt was like, "Mervelleux! super!". I didn't expect that quiality. I bought the CD because of feeling like "Pollini plays Debussy? Interesting, OK, buy it". That is it. I never expected much. However he struck me again as he had with his Stravinsky and Boulez.

Pollini has been my dearest pianist fo far. Needless to say his playing is clear and exact like digital graphics. That clearness and precision produce his sound shine.

Debussy music is sound of light and reflection, with great performance, you can listen to light and reflection. And also there is definitely French intonation. Italian Pollini perfectely reproduce as the music is supposed to be.

He proved non French musicians could talk musique francais with their hands.

A poet Pollini ain't........2005-09-12

I have always had a problem with Pollini's approach to music. Even von Karajan performances seem fresh after listening to a recording of Pollini. With all due respect to my favorite critic of the keyboard, Harris Goldsmith, Pollini all too often can be justifiably accused of superficiality - for all his intense skill and carefulness he ends up sounding rather straightforward. This Debussy CD issue finds him hopelessly loud with an unending use of full tones - even when it's clear Debussy expects something very different Pollini continues to make each note sound out completely. DGG doesn't help matters: the recorded sound frequently smears notes, even during passages of moderate volume. I recently listened to a recording of the Russian pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky from 1952 - that is, over fifty years ago, in mono and recorded by Russian engineers - and found the sound vastly more like a piano. Pollini's performances of Debussy may have the sonority of a Josef Lhevinne, but where are the whisperly delicate traceries Debussy demands as well? Not here. Pollini might do well to read some of his own countrymen's Renaissance works on the painting of colors. As for characterizing individual pieces? Frankly, Pollini plays as if he's more interested in other aspects of the music. This makes for a program where the ongoing tonality Pollini adopts - some might say with a relentless refusal to differentiate, however impressive as pure music-making - loses much of the appeal a more varied approach would give. To be just, Pollini is a commanding magisterial performer - I just wish he could lighten up his attack and sound less all of a piece. A little looser way with rhythms would go a long way, too. For a spendid alternative the late Egorov brought much more poetry and gobs more individuality to Debussy - sadly, it's difficult to find his CDs these days. If you like Boulez in Mahler or Bruckner you may like Pollini in Debussy - but I urge you to listen to a pianist with a more poetic reputation - I think you'll be happy you did.

exquisite readings.......2005-04-06

I grew up on Giesiking n' thought the choice of tempi, sensibility, coolness he brought was definitive, but these pieces grow, a piece of music transforms itself over time,like taking a photo of the same street,things change (not just the obvious either) this is what many I think refuse to comprehend, conductors who think they for instance know the correct tempi, no one else of course knows, only thet KNOW.We also have lived through quite a bit of modernity, the experience of hearing new works all has some influence on what we hear right, at least I would think so,Arrogance of what musicians think they know serves no end and renders music into a museum,sterile, cold, not alive,(look at the fine readings of Bruckner and Mahler Boulez was able to summon,something I saw many years ago,(see my Bruckner 8th recording review with DGG; Boulez/Vienna)( But when it occurred no one thought Boulez could do anything new or innovative with post-Romantics.)
Pollini although he takes liberties in tempi are infintesimal in terms of the exciting engaging gesturing he gets, he never sacrifices a fascinating timbre,as in "le vent sur. . . " he allows Debussy's modernity to come to full fruition, the piano sonoric canvas is well balanced as well,as in "voiles,where he plays with the overtones heard, a real modernist and the opening, "Danses des Delphes",here the balance is extraordinary,as in the "Les parfums. . . " where he plays it like a salon piece for which it is partially intended,(Debussy was strongly influenced by Erik Satie,the realm of simplicity before all else)this Pollini does in order to make music live I think you need to bring these other-lifeworld qualities and sensibilities to the music otherwise it is simply predictable music making, music to watch the clock with, Debussy strove to transcend the mere obvious, he broke all the rules for timbre,and time,spatializations of timbres(his ballet "Jeux" is a better example of the highest sophisticated sense of musical space) for love of timbre, and Pollini fully appreciates this aspect of his aesthetic. Technique and the modern sensibility is a mere given in Pollini I think it allows him again to project the colours anywhere he wants without sacrificing line nor melodic direction. His tone is a bit more fluffier at times than Zimerman,who has a more modern approach with a cold aggressive granite tone that also works quite well if you light a fire under this. Pollini is somewhere in between he has the discipline but doesn't allow it to consume the readings where the "preludes" are such and nothing else. I think what we want out of a pianist is to always search for another dimension of the music; if it exists, if not! one hearing is enough.

Pollini is great, but this CD is not.......2001-11-28

Flat and a bit sedated, rather than dreamy or evocative as I believe Pollini is trying to attempt, lacking the crystalline quirkiness of tone or sharp contrasts of color I identify with the music of Debussy. I don't know if it is the engineering, but the sonority is way too deep and bassy, allowing much of the music to drown in itself. This is refined playing, and I adore Pollini, his recordings of Chopin's Polonaises and Liszt's B flat sonata are personal favorites, but I'm just more in the Gieseking school of playing Debussy, where a colder, impersonal interpretation that concentrates on the possibilities of the piano's coloring allows the natural vagueness of the compositions to speak for itself. I don't know much about impressionism or how Debussy preferred his music to be played, but I like my Debussy with a little more fire and clarity.

A new hit for the greatest living pianist.......2000-01-13

Pollini's fans were gifted in 1999. After the two Brahms Piano Concertos and especially Chopin's Ballades - one of the greatest CDs ever recorded - the Maestro brings Debussy's Preludes up to a new standard of perfection. Benedetti-Michelangeli was great in Debussy. Under Pollini's fingers, these twelve intimate gems recover all their poetry. The sound is, at the same time, very pure and full of spaces, the space between the notes that is called "music". I heard these Preludes live in Amsterdam. Miracle: the recording offers the same emotion and tears. Thank you, Maestro !

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