Octo_Russ

Debussy - Images Books 1 & 2 [Ogawa]

This is the second time i've listened to this disc, otherwise i haven't any listening experience with Ogawa, this is the first volume of four discs of the complete Debussy piano music, and this is the one with the best repertoire in it, i think that eventually these discs will appear in a four box set.

Noriko Ogawa is of course Japanese, born only a year after me, yet she looks half my age!, how do these Orientals keep so young looking?, this disc was recorded in 2000, the front booklet cover is really nice [photo by Ian Tilton], one of the things that attracted me to the disc in the first place.

Ogawa's 6 Images are very consistent, i liked the second book better, and yet the piece that affected me the most was the last from the first book, 'mouvement' [track 3], this is really the same as last month from Claudio Arrau [3rd November 2010], their timings are quite similar in book 1, Ogawa emphasizes the morse code opening more [0:00-0:06], slightly more staccato, and sounds quicker in the frantic warblings [0:06-0:24], she makes the most of the tremendous treble run up the keyboard [0:53-1:05], and the piano and the recording are breathtaking here, it's a gorgeous treble sound, well caught by the sound engineers, i love a recording where you can hear every chink and chime of high treble, and it's that first frantic zing! up the keyboard, like something shooting up your spine, i love that!, and later some more ringing in the treble right hand [1:39-2:09], almost like a telephone no one answers, fantastic!, the opening returns again [2:09+], and i must admit that i feel Ogawa is a shade fast here, it would have added a degree of mystery to slow it down say 10%, but maybe it would have gained at the loss of its chimerical nature, and right at the end comes the second treble run up the keyboard [2:51+], this time with a certain less zing, as it has a coda feel to it, and it hovers high for a while, before climbing even higher into the treble clouds [3:01+], where it disappears out of sight / hearing, certainly Ogawa catches things that Arrau misses, she is really nice and fleet fingered, and the title 'mouvement' is very apt, as Ogawa keeps the fingers / hands in constant creative motion [and e-motion!], a wonderful aural Image by Debussy.

Here's Katie Mahan playing Debussy's Mouvement from Images Book 1 on YouTube.