It is impossible to talk about Sviatoslav Richter and his mastery of the piano in normal terms of speech. Each time an article on him comes out, it is liberally dotted with superlatives, reminiscent of an ecclesiastical way of speech fathered by the church and which now seems to be going out of fashion. Both critics and concert-goers associate Richter's name with expressions of wonder and enthusiasm. It would therefore seem that Richter appeals to the soul of his listeners rather than to their intellect. The present release features Grieg’s Lyryske Stikke and Debussy’s Six preludes, recorded live in Athens, Kozani, and Cosenza

The works on this recording were written at various periods in Claude Debussy’s life, and reflect different aspects of him: from a young man stylistically unsure of himself to the confident maître, from a jobbing composer struggling to fulfill sometimes incongruous commissions to a man worn down by illness and outer events.

The disc opens with Printemps – a work originally for choir, piano and orchestra written in 1887 during Debussy’s stay in Italy as a winner of the Prix de Rome, but only published 25 years later in an orchestration made by Henri Büsser under the composer’s supervision. Three of the works that follow were commissions – the Rapsodie from a lady saxophonist, the Marche écossaise from an American general of Scottish descent and the Deux Dances from the instrument-maker Pleyel wanting to market a new model for a chromatic harp.

Chronologically the last work on the program, Berceuse héroique is Debussy's contribution to a tribute to the king of Belgium at the beginning of the Great War. Having rejected the idea of writing a heroic march in the safety of his own home he instead opted for a lullaby for piano, which he orchestrated the following year.

The closing work on the disc, however, is Nocturnes, for which Debussy borrowed the title from a series of atmospheric paintings by James Whistler. Made up of three equally atmospheric movements, it is today one of Debussy’s best-loved compositions for orchestra.

Nocturnes also forms the end of a trilogy of Debussy albums from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Lan Shui. Critical acclaim for the team range from ‘superb’ (BBC Music Magazine, about La mer) and ‘unquestionably world-class’ (Klassik-Heute.de, about the orchestra) to ‘a magnificent disc’ – the French magazine Classica’s verdict on the three ballet scores Jeux, Khamma and La Boîte à joujoux.

The excellent new album Intimate Impressions for Two Guitars by the duo Adam Cicchillitti and Steve Cowan consists of music originally written for piano, harp, or two guitars by leading 20th century composers who spent the bulk of their careers working in Paris, such as Ravel, Debussy, Mompou, Tailleferre, and Jolivet. The arrangements, the majority of which are by the Cicchillitti/Cowan duo, eloquently illustrate that the tone colors, intimacy, and pure lyricism of the composers’ styles are ideally suited to the guitar, and that the harmonic language translates beautifully to a guitar duo. Simply captivating!

REVIEW:

New additions to the guitar duo repertoire: 20th Century French works arranged for two guitars, artistically performed by Canadian guitarists who clearly have command of transcription skills, and also a unified delivery of the music in all its technical complexity and musical depth. Drew Henderson and Michael Kolk’s arrangement of the `Prelude’ from Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin, the only arrangement in the program not by the duo, is nothing short of stellar in concept and execution. There follows the almost obligatory contemporary work on the program, Serenade by Andre Jolivet. Even though it was written for and premiered by Presti & Lagoya, an inspiring duo from the mid-1900s not known for avante-garde musical excursions, it disrupts the flow in this otherwise delightful program of warm and uplifting music. Liner notes by Richard Turp are well written and interesting, leaving the listener with a fairly complete picture of the music.

-- American Record Guide

Volume 5 of Naxos’s acclaimed series of Debussy’s orchestral music presents a potpourri of works that were either left incomplete by the composer or were orchestrated by others who greatly admired his music. His rarely-heard children’s ballet The Toy Box, dedicated to Debussy’s daughter Emma-Claude but not premièred until after the composer’s death, recalls the innocent world of his popular Children’s Corner suite. Based on Pierre Louÿs’ Chansons de Bilitis, Debussy’s Six épigraphes antiques evoke poetic scenes from the ancient world, as does the sole surviving portion of The Triumph of Bacchus.

Philippe Graffin’s virtuosity combined with his skills as a sleuth have led to the world-premiere recording of a “Posthumous” solo violin sonata by Eugene Ysaye, an astonishing discovery that extends the Belgian composer’s canon of his essential six sonatas for the medium. Philippe unearthed the nearly-completed manuscript in the library of the Brussels Conservatoire, and polished off the final movement in the most Ysaye-esque manner possible. Philippe’s penchant for intuitive programming I brought to bear on Fiddler’s Blues, combining two Ysaye works - including another premiere, with a pair of folksy, Bohemian-flavored works by George Enescu, another virtuoso violinist/composer who emigrated from his native Romania and like Ysaye settled in Paris.

Enescu was a classmate of Maurice Ravel, whose Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Faure is an affectionate nod to their teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, whilst his azure-tinged Violin Sonata influences the album’s title. Ravel’s slightly older contemporary Claude Debussy befriended Ysaye. Whereas Ysaye soared writing works for solo violin, Debussy wrote none. Suggesting how such a work may have sounded, Philippe contributes his own arrangement for solo violin of Debussy’s enduring piece Claire de lune.

REVIEWS:

This duo’s rapport comes across in sparky performances. Premieres of pieces by Ysaÿe are a draw, but the Enescu sonata and Hora Unirii are a real treat and leave you feeling anything but blue. ★★★★

-- BBC Music Magazine

The big story here is the first recording of a previously undiscovered seventh unaccompanied violin sonata by Eugène Ysaÿe…Played with flourishing panache and easy command, it makes an electrifying opening to this deceptively titled recital: essentially a survey of the early 20th-century Parisian scene…There’s a real feeling of dialogue.

-- Gramophone

This new OSR recording presents the two most ambitious musical responses to Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1893 epoch-making play Pelléas et Mélisande. Conductor Jonathan Nott has created a new suite of Debussy’s opera, which is much more extensive, and focuses more on the actual drama and symphonic development than existing suites that rely heavily on Debussy’s interludes. Schoenberg’s Pelléas und Melisande is often perceived as relatively “amorphous”, its narrative structure obscure, leaving concealed all but the most explicit references to the drama on which Schoenberg based it. In this recording, Jonathan Nott introduces a novel track division and analytical track titles that make the music’s relation to the story much more tangible to the listener. Programming it next to the music of Debussy’s opera allows us to compare both works, and to see how the most important innovators of turn-of-the-century music responded to this haunting, Symbolist story. The arrangement of Debussy’s music on this recording is the work of Jonathan Nott.

REVIEW:

For many listeners, conductor Jonathan Nott's new version of Debussy's work will be reason enough to check this album out. While his task was a difficult one, the results give a feel for the flow of the opera. But there's more. Nott has configured the track divisions and track titles of Schoenberg's single-movement Pelleas und Melisande in a novel way. In part, he seems to have relied on Alban Berg's analysis of the work as a combination of four-movement sonata form and the Wagnerian leitmotif technique, and the track titles, Nott's own, reflect this. One might debate what has been done in the cases of both Debussy and Schoenberg, but there's no debating the value of his effort; comparing the Debussy and the Schoenberg side by side is fascinating. Nott further emphasizes the direct comparison with his relatively straightforward performances of the two works, avoiding operatic gestures in the Debussy, and the venerable Swiss orchestra follows him well through unfamiliar interpretations. This is highly recommended for aficionados of the early 20th century.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)