A really nice Debussy recital, and a well chosen programme to boot, i bought this in 2005, and it's slowly impressed me, it comes from Harmonia Mundi's 'Les Nouveaux Interpretes' series [The New Interpreters], showcasing up and coming French Artists, and giving them a platform to speak from, it's a great series, and there's some fine discs to be had, Tiberghien has gone on to greater things, and i think he's destined for a long and rewarding career, Check out his recordings of the Beethoven Violin Sonatas with Alina Ibragimova, he certainly builds his interpretations up to powerful climaxes, maybe in the real poetry of quiet passages, i don't find that intensity in abundance, maybe neither a vast palette of colours, but i'm still in the infancy of listening to this disc, so my feelings can still blossom and bloom.
Cedric Tiberghien is French, he is now 37 years old, he made this recording in 2000, this Harmonia Mundi series has a major black & white picture on the right, and then a colour scheme on the left and back, this one's orange, i like the way these are laid out, the picture [by Vincent Pancol] is excellent, black background and shirt, highlighting the face, stark lighting giving deep shadows, i like it a lot, if only he did something interesting with his hands.
Well what a wonderful work this is, 6 Images, all very different, and the one i liked the most was the third one from Book One 'Mouvement', if you watch the video for this, you can see how Debussy was a little devil in forcing the hands to play over and around each other, but it's actually great visual gymnastics as well as lovely music, lovely stammering and stuttering playing from Tiberghien at the beginning [0:00-0:30], those lovely hammered chords, going from treble in the right hand, and echoing in the bass in the left hand [0:30-0:44], and then again in a more legato and extended way [0:56-1:03], notice the satisfying transformation?, the way the whole thing starts over again is terrific [2:10+], lovely warbling treble right at the end [2:54-3:17], slowly moving higher and higher, and the delicious dead note right at the end [3:17], a perfect way to end a piece, yes it's really alive, it's amazing how much you can pack into three and a half minutes if you're Debussy!.
Here's Mouvement, the third piece from the First Book of Images being played on YouTube.
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