Debussy's Preludes

[Todd]

Digging into this set.  There was only one place to start: CD 17, the 1951 recording of Debussy's Preludes.  I have been waiting to hear this recording for over twenty years.  Was it worth the wait?  Kinda, kinda not.  I'll start with the problem: the recording itself.  There's overload and saturation aplenty, especially in Book I.  Fortissimo loses its impact.  It's obvious why the 1954 set is the oft reissued one.  The playing is very fine, as one would expect.  I've long preferred the 1930s recording to the 1954 recording, and in most ways, this is similar to the 1954 recording.  Gieseking is much swifter, nimbler, and flexible in the earlier recording, and here he actually takes some pieces at a slow tempo.  La cathédrale engloutie comes in at 7'11", for instance.  Some of the pianissimo playing really sticks out, though, more than my memories of his later set.  And at least once, due to playing and sound, the whole thing's almost a mess.  Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest sounds chaotic, but Gieseking is one of the few pianists who can salvage chaos. Somewhat against expectation, Book II is relatively better than Book I on first listen.  Giesking's Debussy is high quality stuff, but I long ago found that others are even more to my like - eg, Michel Beroff's Denon set.  This is good enough that it may make restart my comps of the seventy-plus recordings of Book I that I have amassed.

[Leo K.]

Amazing emotionally cool performances that are right up my alley.

[Leo K.]

milk you might like this one:

I am really impressed by this recording with the Pleyel 1873, and wow stunning playing too.

[Todd]

My prior experience with Mr Shimkus' artistry is limited to his excellent entry in the ongoing Naxos Soler edition.  I was happy to try something else, so why not go for his recording of Debussy's Preludes, I thought.  It opens nicely enough, but once one arrives at Le vent dans la plaine, one is treated to fluid playing and just so accenting that really catches the ear.  La cathédrale engloutie, always a critical piece, has scale without overdoing it, with supremely controlled fortissimo playing, and the left hand playing sounds clear and potent but not overpowering.  All of Book I is a delight.  Book II sounds better yet.  That fluid playing and dynamic control marries to legato, sometimes from the sustain and sometimes from digital dexterity and sometimes both, in a manner that makes the music flow effortlessly from under the pianist's fingers.  The one-two punch of Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses and Bruyères offer masterful displays of fluid rhythm and exquisite gentility. Mr Shimkus is one of the many contemporary pianists who can do anything, and he does so here with impeccable taste and refined artistry.  Clearly, I need to listen to more of his recordings.  And this recording is making me think about restarting my Debussy Preludes comparisons, if I can find the time.

[Luke]

Shimkus has serious chops. There's a video of him playing a composition of his own called Black Charleston which is insanely difficult (I have the score, and can scarcely play any of it). Granted, it's his own piece so it fits his hands' idiosyncracies perfectly, but it's a powerfully physical, exciting performance of a highly virtuosic composition. 

[Todd]

Shimkus has serious chops.

Indeed.  Imagine hearing this is in a train station:

We live in the true Golden Age of pianists.

[Todd]

I've recently started thinking maybe I should restart my Preludes Book I listening marathon, working through all 78 versions I now own.  If I do so, I should probably add a few more to my collection, and of course I would stream some sets.  If I do it, I kind of like the idea of getting to a nice round 100 versions.  I did some digging and found 190 recordings of the first book, though some I suspect are like Claudio Colomobo's "recording", which I purposely left out.  Anyway, if anyone knows of any versions I missed, additions would be welcome.  (Pianists who recorded more than one version appear more than once.)



Akiko Kusano
Al Goranski
Alain Planes
Albert Ferber
Aldo Ciccolini
Alessandra Ammara
Alfred Cortot
Ami Fujiwara
Amir Tebenikhin
Anatoly Vedernikov
Andrew von Oeyen
Angela Brownridge
Anker Blyme
Anton Batagov
Antonio Rosado
Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
Atsuko Yamauchi
Bennett Lerner
Boris Berman
Bruno Canino
Catherine Collard
Catherine Kautsky
Cecille Ousset
Christopher Devine
Christopher Howell
Claudio Arrau
Claudio Constantini
Craig Sheppard
Cyril Guillotin
Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Ericourt
Denis Pascal
Dennis Lee
Dino Ciani
Duncan Gifford
E Robert Schmitz
Elaine Greenfield
Elizabeth Sharma
Eloise Bella Kohn
Enrico Belli
Enrique Bernaldo de Quirós
Eric Heidsieck
Evgeny Koroliov
Fazil Say
Fou Ts'ong
Francesco Piemontesi
Francine Kay
Francois Chaplin
Francois-Joel Thiollier
Friedrich Gulda
Geoffrey Saba
George Lepauw
Georges Pludermacher
Gerardo Taube Horowitz
Gianluca Cascioli
Gilead Mishory
Gordon Fergus-Thompson
Gregory Haimovsky
Guiomar Novaes
Gunter Reinhold
Hakon Austbo
Hans Henkemans
Hans Leygraf
Haydee Schvartz
Henry Blossom
Henry Doskey
Hiroki Sasaki
Hiroshi Nagao
Ichiro Nodaira
Idil Biret
Ikuyo Nakamichi
Ilja Hurnik
Ivan Ilic
Jacopo Salvatori
Jacques Rouvier
Javier Perianes
Jean Bernard Pommier
Jean Boguet
Jean Casadesus
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
Jean-François Antonioli
Jean-Paul Gasparian
Jean-Pierre Armengaud
Jean-Rodolphe Kars
Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Jeroen Riemsdijk
John Roney
Jorg Demus
Jorge Federico Osorio
Jos van Immerseel
Julia Bartha
Jun Kanno
Katie Mahan
Kazuoki Fujii
Keiko Toyama
Konstantin Emelyanov
Kornel Zempleni
Kristina Svanberg
Krystian Zimerman
Kyoko Edo
Larissa Dedova
Lars Sellergren
Leonard Pennario
Leonardo Zunica
Livia Rev
Marcelle Meyer
Marco Tezza
Mario Haring
Marita Viitasalo
Mark Laughlin
Martin Jones
Martin Klett
Matino Tirimo
Maurizio Pollini
Mayako Asada
Melvyn Tan
Míceál O'Rourke
Michael Korstick
Michael Levinas
Michael Lewin
Michel Beroff
Michel Beroff
Michel Beroff
Michel Dalberto
Monique Haas
Monique Haas
Narumi Arasaki
Nelson Freire
Nino Gvetadze
Noel Lee
Noémie Berz
Noriko Ogawa
Paavali Jumppanen
Pascal Gallet
Pascal Roge
Pascal Roge
Patricia Pagny
Paul Crossley
Paul Jacobs
Peter Donohoe
Peter Frankl
Philippe Bianconi
Philippe Cassard
Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Prodromos Symeonidis
Ralph Votapek
Reine Gianoli
Robert Casadesus
Robert Cassidy
Roger Woodward
Ronald Farren-Price
Roy Howat
Rubén Yessayan
Ruth Schmid-Gagnebin
Sa Chen
Samson Francois
Sandro Baldi
Sergey Shepkin
Stany David Lasry
Steven Osborne
Sylvie Nicephor
Tamas Vesmas
Terry Lynn Hudson
Theodore Paraskivesco
Vanessa Benelli Mosell
Veronique Bonnecaze
Vestard Shimkus
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Viardo
Walter Gieseking (1930s)
Walter Gieseking (1951)
Walter Gieseking (1954)
Wendel Diebel
Werner Haas
Wojciech Świtała
Woori Kim Smith
Yin Cheng-Zong
Yoko Kitamura
Youri Egorov
Yukie Nagai
Yukio Yokoyama
Yuma Osaki
Zaidee Parkinson
Zane Miller
Zoe Erisman
Zoltan Kocsis

[Luke]

Alexei Lubimov? On ECM

[Mandryka]

Nina Tichman
Izumi Tatino ( = Joyce Hatto)
Dang Thai Son
Alice Adler
Richard Goode (private recording)
Minori Nojima
Yasukawa Kazuko




Cortot recorded them twice I think.

Be sure to hear Tichman.

[Todd]

I knew I missed some.  Thanks

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

So many Japanese artists! More than French pianists?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Takayuki Ito.

[aukhawk]

I have a recording of 10/12 of Bk1 by Sviatoslav Richter - but it seems to omit La fille aux cheveux de lin and Minstrels.  It's on the BBC Legends label.

[atardecer]

William Harms - Debussy Preludes Book I:

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Any interesting recording of Book 2?

[Mandryka]

Any interesting recording of Book 2?

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.classical.recordings/c/YWN1dH-wM30/m/RGPcQCs3AgAJ

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.classical.recordings/c/YWN1dH-wM30/m/RGPcQCs3AgAJ

Thanks a lot for the link. Richter and Ericourt look interesting. I like Paul Jacobs.

[George]

wow, Google groups rmcr is dead in a few days!

[DavidW]

wow, Google groups rmcr is dead in a few days!

The end of an era!

[Hans Holbein]

Alexei Lubimov? On ECM

And an earlier one, from 1971, on Melodiya.