Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 02/08/2017, uploaded on 09/23/2017

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

I.  Pagodes

II.  La soirée dans Grenade
III.  Jardins sous la pluie

Born in 1862, Claude Debussy is, together with Liszt, one of the innovators of piano technique. While Liszt developed finger technique and composed some of the most treacherous pieces ever written, Debussy’s innovation was on tone color. Until Debussy’s Prelude à l’après-midi d’un faune, tone color did not play a significant role in either orchestral or piano music. But it is this feature that allowed the artistic trends of Symbolism and Impressionism in music.Estampes, finished in 1903, represents the pinnacle of the Impressionism trend in music. Each of the works depicts different images from all over the world. Pagodes is a representation of the Gamelan and of Far East imagery, describing the exotic landscapes and instruments in that part of the world. Debussy uses pentatonic and whole tone scales, which resemble the Far East mood with all its nuances. While Pagodes takes us to the Far East, La soirée dans Grenade takes us on a tour through Granada, Spain, in which Debussy never spent more than a few hours. In spite of this fact, as the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla quoted, "it is the most Spanish piece of music ever composed". Finally, Jardins sous la pluie, evokes the sound of a thunderstorm on the gardens of Debussy's native France.     Notes by Juan Carlos

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.