Debussy: Preludes, Book 1 / L'isle joyeuse

Claude Debussy (Composer), Maurizio Pollini (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Maurizio Pollini
• Composer: Claude Debussy
• Audio CD (November 9, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B00002R2SU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,961 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exquisite readings, April 5, 2005

By 

scarecrow "scarecrow" (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Debussy: Preludes, Book 1 / L'isle joyeuse (Audio CD)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pollini displays complete mastery in Debussy, April 22, 2009

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Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Debussy: Preludes, Book 1 / L'isle joyeuse (Audio CD)

In the usual unthinking way of Amazon's paid reviewers, this one worked backward from a preconceived notion about Pollini (cool, detached elegance) without actually listening to the peformance. I havee not only heard all the rival sets of Debussy Preludes cited as better, I've compared them side-by-side with Pollini. He has nothing to fear. In terms of imagination, boldness, secure techniqe, and grasp of Debussy's elusive idiom, Pollini is beyond reproach. I don't know why he didn't follow up this 1998 CD of Book I with another devoted to Book II; perhaps it's coming one day.

Stylistically, Pollini isn't as gauzy or wistful as Gieseking, nor as sparkling and brittle as Thibaudet, not as easygoing as Freire or as volatile as Horowitz. There's room for different expressive approaches in Debussy. What sets Pollini apart is his ability to capture each Prelude as one arc of expression; you feel completely engrossed from first note to last, the way you do when Furtwangler conducts the Eroica. Debussy gave these little pieces their evocative titles after he wrote them. They aren't so much miniatures in a picture gallery of Impressionist art as purely musical inventions, and it takes a master to make each one sound like a single, original thing rather than a series of evocative gestures. Gieseking famously had that ability, and so does Pollini.

DG has not always been good to this pianist with the best instrument or the best sound, but here both are of a high standard. the timing of 43 min. is quite stingy, even though the single filler, L'isle joyeuse, Is brilliantly done.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new hit for the greatest living pianist, January 12, 2000

By 

Daniel ZUFFEREY (Montreux, Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Debussy: Preludes, Book 1 / L'isle joyeuse (Audio CD)

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 !