When acclaimed pianist Hiroko Sasaki was looking for an instrument to record the Debussy Preludes on, she happened to spot a strange looking instrument, which turned out to be a Pleyel concert grand built in 1873, and she instantly fell in love with it. The piano, built in a beautifully ornamented harpsichord case, offers her the special sonorities, dynamics and colours that she thinks are essential in Debussy, who himself owned a Pleyel piano, his favourite instrument.
The result is fascinating, the familiar music is clothed in a new sound, the pianissimos seem to come from “a piano without hammers”, as Debussy wanted it. But an instrument needs a master to sound great , and Hiroko Sasaki does marvels with these 24 character pieces, full of atmosphere, caprice and imagination. The booklet contains texts on the music, the instrument and photos of the piano.
Book I
00:00:00 Danseuses de Delphes (Dancers of Delphi)
00:02:48 Voiles (Veils; Sails)
00:05:44 Le vent dans la plaine (The wind on the plain)
00:07:37 “Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir” (“Sounds and perfumes mingle in the evening air”)
00:10:31 Les collines d’Anacapri (The hills of Anacapri)
00:13:21 Des pas sur la neige (Footprints in the snow)
00:16:54 Ce qu’a vu le Vent d’Ouest (What the west wind saw)
00:19:51 La fille aux cheveux de lin (The girl with the flaxen hair)
00:22:12 La serenade interrompue (The interrupted serenade)
00:24:31 La Cathedrale engloutie (The sunken cathedral)
00:29:39 La danse de Puck (Puck’s dance)
00:31:55 Minstrels
Book II
00:33:57 Brouillards (Fog)
00:37:03 Feuilles mortes (Dead Leaves)
00:40:02 La Puerta del Vino (Gateway of the Alhambra Palace in Granada)
00:43:10 “Les Fees sont d’exquises danseuses” (“Fairies are exquisite dancers”)
00:45:52 Bruyeres (Heather)
00:48:41 General Lavine–eccentric
00:51:00 La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (The Terrace for Moonlight Audiences)
00:55:06 Ondine
00:57:58 Hommage a S.Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C.
01:00:23 Canope
01:03:07 Les tierces alternees (Alternating Thirds)
