If I Could Choose Only One Work By...DEBUSSY
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ม.ค. 2023
- It Would Have To Be...Preludes for Piano (Books 1 and 2)
When you think about it, Debussy was a keyboard composer first and foremost, so the choice here was inevitable. BTW, in the video I mention "Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut," which is from the Images, not the Préludes, but I was giving examples of Debussy's use of cool titles and I especially love that one, so don't give me a hard time about it!
The List So Far:
1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker - เพลง
For over 3 years, I fell asleep each night to Walter Gieseking's Preludes after working the midnight shift at a hospital.
After I first heard Clair de Lune in high school thirty years ago, and being blown away, I went out and got the Complete Piano Works on Phillips, and I came across the Préludes, and I'm still hearing new things whenever I listen to them. To this day they are my favourite piano works of any composer.
Cancrizans: "Fetch yon La Mer, celestial servant, and put it in my player!"
Servant: "Sorry, sire O Great One, but that work was destroyed."
Cancrizans: "But what idiot would have it destroyed?"
Servant: "Um ...."
Sorry, I may be a little late to the party but what is Cancrizans?
@@dankrebs4764 Cancrizans is the mythical god of classical music our host Hurwitz has conjured as framework for this series, wherein all classical music save one essential, typical work for each composer is to be destroyed, at Cancrizan's demand.
La Mer, which he in fact orchestrated superbly, with or without the fanfares in the last movement. It's the summit of his special idiom and sound, and has an inevitable formal sweep from start to finish with awesome inspiring power in the finale. Since albums are allowed, posterity also gets to keep (as often coupled) the Nocturnes, Iberia, maybe Faun or perhaps the late Jeux, an allusive, mysterious work in which one discovers more depth each time it's heard. But however coupled, I hear La Mer as the main thing that is Debussy.
Absolutely, YES! When I started to study composition I was totally blown away by the preludes. They changed my ears and even my playing. Two years after (when I was about 17) there were two items that I carried everywhere in my bag: the scores of his complete preludes (which I would play or analyze whenever I felt like) and a cassette (!) containing João Gilberto's first 3 LPs (which were the most beautiful thing ever). They taught me subtlety, the beauty of the moment, and basically brought me an aesthetic conscience. Not a bit of this enchantment went away. On the contrary, I still find more and more reasons for loving all of this music so deeply.
"...without BANGING"...absolutely. I've had a tough time finding recordings of Debussy's piano music the way I think it should sound...as you say, requiring pianists to totally re-think their way of approaching the instrument (I like Paul Jacobs in the Preludes). And that's why, difficult a decision as it is, the Preludes might just be Debussy's greatest achievement, because he created his own revolutionary world of sound within the confines of the keyboard...the accomplishment of true, pure genius (Chopin also fits this description). LR
Worth mentioning: Colin Mathew's lovely orchestrations of both books of Preludes, beautifully recorded by Mark Elder & the Hallé Orchestra.
www.classicstoday.com/review/review-15908/?search=1
Excellent choice! I'd still go for La Mer, the ultimate seascape composition, the colours of which are still stunning after multiple listens. There are even 2-piano versions (although not by him), which are like the piano preludes multiplied many times over.
Agree wouldn't want to be without La Mer
There is a wonderful version for one piano four hands of La Mer, transcribed by Claude Debussy himself.
My first thought was Estampes - I got to know Debussy’s piano music when I heard The Richter recording while visiting a CD shop in 2003. They played it over the loudspeakers and I asked what is was and who was playing. The man at the counter smiled and pointed at the Richter recording, laying on the counter. But it is a very short work and therefore, I also would take the preludes.
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) - Tafelmusik (1733)
Georg Philipp Telemann was a famed Hamburg based German Baroque composer who lived to the ripe old age of 86. Moreover, he is one of the most prolific composers in history, having written more than 3,000 compositions. He was a friend to both J.S. Bach (made Telemann the godfather and namesake of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel) and Handel (appropriated several of telemann's tunes) who bought and studied his published works.
While not everything Telemann composed is of the highest inspiration, this cannot be said of his Tafelmusik (table music) published in 1733. This work was composed in three parts called productions, with each production containing an orchestral suite (aka Ouverture), a concerto for several instruments and three chamber works (a quartet, a trio & a sonata). The music throughout is all excellent. Consequently, I chose Telemann's Tafelmusik because of it's musical variety and high artistic quality.
Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp. I love it!
No, you loved the violist. Hehe.
This is why it's personal choice not greatest, because my head says Pelleas but my heart either follows Dave's choice or goes with the Nocturnes. There's a passage in Fetes, after the huge build-up, where it has such a vast crunchy climax. One of the truly great moments in all music for me. (Conversely, I can never make any sense of Jeux. Seems to ramble on.)
I felt similarly about Jeux the first couple of listens but I'm getting more and more out of it and more cohesive formal sense, governed by the dance scenario each time I hear it. Almost the dance equivalent of Pelleas.
I've always assumed the titles hark back to the tradition of 18th French harpsichord music exemplified by Couperin - and like Couperin the titles are oddly mysterious and oblique. Debussy emphazising his sense of tradition just as he seeks utmost originality..
His intention I believe was to hear the piece first, then see the title. "Oblique" indeed!
How does one characterize "dead leaves" or "what the west wind saw"?
Pure magic!
My introduction to the Preludes was Walter Gieseking on an Odyssey disc in glorious mono sound.
Basic library for me.
Wonderful selection, I adore J-Y Thibaudet’s recording on Decca!
''La cathédrale engloutie'' in the orchestration of leopold stokowski...( beautiful recording on telarc by erich kunzel)...oh what a magnificent piece....! what an orchestration!...! it always reminds me of a visit at the time to lake taurus (mauricie, quebec), a lake which had formed following the construction of a hydroelectric dam and which had submerged several villages which were located near this place including some church. We could also see the top of a bell tower of one of its churches
Love that disc.
Bach: Musikalisches Opfer: because it has a "canon cancrizans" in it. And it shows off Bach's genius in different combinations of instruments in different forms and with the most fabulous displays of counterpoint.
These are great, David! You've inspired me to put together my own "If I Could Choose Only One Work" list for a few of the composers I'm listening to most right now, starting with Vaughan Williams. I may have to create a March Madness-type bracket to determine the "winner" between "Hodie," "Five Tudor Portraits," the Mass in G minor, and the Fifth Symphony.
I’m just relieved it’s both books. Wonderful choice!
Lovely choice! And so many great & distinctive recordings. The one I'm turning to most often in recent times is by the wonderful Monique Haas.
I love Debussy's preludes. I don't think I could ever choose just one work from any composer!
Love the Preludes especially played by Ivan Moravec (Supraphon) but for one piece it would be the String Quartet (Quartetto Italiano now Decca cds) with its rhapsodic slow movement.
Definitely Jeux for me.
Today’s choice: Mozart - The magic flute. Like my previous choice of Candide, it’s a rather mixed up creature but completely cohesive. I love it. (I love Mozart but this would be my desert island choice of his eternal masterpieces.)
Absolutely my favorite of all his overtures! If I had to choose just one part, it would be the first act Quintet, "Hmm, hmm, hmm..."
Jeux for me. The mystery of it.
Yes, either 'Jeux' or 'Douze Etudes' for me. The Sonata for flute, viola and harp would be next.
Great choice! I never tire of listening to the Preludes. Zimerman is good. But the sound is too closely miked for my taste. Bavouzet is excellent. Osborne is exceptionally great. I also felt the need to buy the music and study it even though I don't play the piano.
I have suggestion for Rossini, which is perhaps somewhat daring : the Petite Messe Solennelle, in its first version. It contains musical riches enough for an eternity of listening.
When this list of works is complete, I want to compile a playlist of your favorite recording of each of these.
Im going with Pélléas et Mélisande, it’s too much of a labour of love by Debussy (12 years?) to not keep it.
This Kankrisands is really rough, even Noah was allowed to bring two of each onto the ark!
(I’m sure someone else has said this already, but I’m not going through all the comments to check for originality.)
Cancrizans
@@thr4017 "Cancrizans" simply means "retrograde" or "backwards," with reference to a crab appearing to walk backwards. Some composers have experimented with counterpart using exact retrograde, e.g., Canon 1 from J.S. Bach's Musical Offering. 🙂
'Pelléas et Mélisande' is certainly widely held to be Debussy's masterpiece. And Debussy indeed invested a huge chunk of his life to its composition and refinement. It's my favorite opera (though atypical of the genre), along with Berg's 'Wozzeck'.
I would choose the preludes as well.
You make a great case for the piano Preludes, but I would absolutely insist on an orchestral work: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. It's a shame it's so short, but it's just too delicious.
My choice for Brahms would have to be one of his chamber music works. That's the Brahms I love unreservedly. I want to pick the Clarinet Quintet, but if necessary to choose something more typical, rather than the "autumnal" late Brahms, then the Piano Quartet in G Minor. It one of those rare works where any of its four movements can be my favorite. He was firing on all cylinders.
Out of curiosity, what's your favorite recording of the preludes? Thank you.
Check out reviews at ClassicsToday.com. I don't have a single favorite.
Walter Gieseking's recordings from the early 1950s have long been the reference.
Not sure what I'd choose for Debussy. Probably either Images pour orchestre or La mer.
Jeux - a new world of music. Or the Faune, you could reconstruct Debussy from one short piece.
One album for Rimsky? I’d love to choose the Jarvi opera suites, but who can live without Sheherazade? So I’d choose the Kondrashin Scheherazade with Markevitch Capriccio and Russian Easter.
Does it for me.
For me it’s the Nocturnes. Admittedly I’m not familiar with the Preludes. I’ll have to delve into them now.
Good choice but I would go with his quartet
Still can't find how to spell this evil deity's name.
You haven't looked very hard. I've done it many times already: Cancrizans.
@@DavesClassicalGuide yeah, I posted too soon. I found it just a couple minutes later.
Obvious choice. I also think that Debussy was a piano person, and the 24 preludes cover most of his discoveries, and would be the 'work' I would save from oblivion. But in some ways an even more distinctive piano work is the 12 etudes, his last. This work is more advanced and less cloying, and nobody since has approached it.
The Preludes are NOT "cloying." Boy is that the wrong word!
@@DavesClassicalGuide Fair enough. Over-familiar, mannered, precious might apply to some of them, and the fault may lie with the performers rather than Debussy. In any event, I find the etudes more recondite, and they convey his most private thoughts, and are less 'commercial', if you will.
@@jasonclark1966 I'm sorry, but your use of language really needs work. Oy.