The Recording: a history "Debussy Preludes, Books 1 & 2"... Elaine Greenfield, pianist

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Listen to an interview with Diane Enget talking with Murray Norton on the BBC program, "Favourite Things," on November 1, 2004, talking about this recording. mp3 file (6.7 MB). Also, see the recent review from Classics Today

The idea behind this recording certainly dates from my student years, in the early 1960s. Debussy's imaginative scoring, incomparable textures, vast tonal palette, and profound use of the piano to achieve his musical aims struck me powerfully. The unending depth of color and its connection to an inutterable message were haunting. Thus began a lifelong captivation with this music. Throughout my forty-year association with these works, they have maintained an intense hold on my musical imagination, compelling me to revisit them on a regular basis. I played nine of the twelve Preludes of Book Two on my 1976 Carnegie Recital Hall debut program and had little problem choosing the twelve in Book One for my first recording, in 1984. Ten years later, I decided to perform the 24 Préludes in their entirety and in their order of composition. Debussy's mastery of logic and organization invite, even demand, such an approach. The possibility of presenting them on exactly the type of piano Debussy had owned, and for which he had written, began to work its magic on me. Having previously visited the striking collection of nineteenth-century grand pianos belonging to Michael and Patricia Frederick, Ashburnham, Massachusetts, I was aware of the tonal and dynamic possibilities of their 1907 Blüthner grand, a piano of the same make and vintage as Debussy's own. My first in-depth encounter with the instrument left me awe-struck. No piano I had heard live or recorded even approached the rightness of this piano for the Debussy Preludes. Sounds previously alive only in my imagination were suddenly cascading and swirling forth in a way no other instrument I had ever encountered had managed. This was what Debussy heard as he wrote them. This was what he intended. In 1996, I played the 24 Preludes in concert at the Frederick Collection. Hearing the playback of the recorded performance was mesmerizing. I resolved to return and make this album. It is my sincere hope that this recording will give all interested music lovers - especially performers, teachers, and students of these works - a clearer understanding of the special character and meaning of these amazing Preludes.

Elaine Greenfield

The Blüthner Piano:
Debussy acquired a grand piano built in 1904 by the Leipzig firm of Julius Blüthner. According to recollections of his step-daughter, Dolly de Tinan, it was in his salon for the remainder of his life. (Debussy most likely bought this instrument during his August 1905 stay in Eastbourne, Sussex. It is now at the Musé Labenche, Brive-la-Gaillarde, Limousin, France, the town to which Dolly's brother Raoul brought the piano upon retirement. The mahogany veneered instrument was refinished around 1950.) The Blüthner concert grand heard on this recording was built in 1907 and is the most recently made instrument in the Frederick Collection, Ashburnham, Massachusetts. Like Debussy's piano, it has Blüthner's patent Aliquot system, a fourth, sympathetic (unstruck) string provided for each treble note. The characteristic sound of this piano is largely due to other factors, however. The Blüthner offers a clarity, and differentiations among tone colors, that are not readily available from most modern grand pianos. The musically significant components of the instrument are original, with the probable exception of the hammers and strings, which are European, probably pre-World War II. Like most European pianos of the period, it has only two pedals: damper and una corda.

E. Michael Frederick

Claude Debussy: "musicien de France" Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918) was one of the most important composers of the early 20th century and one of the great innovators in the history of piano music. With the familiar, though often misunderstood term "Impressionism" by which to classify the man, it has been all too convenient to view Debussy's style as the musical epitome of the Impressionist aesthetic, mirroring ideals and aims of the Impressionist painters and Symbolist poets. Interestingly, Debussy despised the term Impressionism, believing it implied a shallowness and a lack of seriousness, neither of which remotely characterized his intent or his works. Like Chopin and Liszt before him, he would not accept the keyboard restrictions and orthodoxies of the past. He set about developing startlingly innovative concepts of pianistic technique and coloristic devices that unveiled vast new resources for the piano. Debussy the man was moody, reticent, fastidious, a painstakingly slow worker. He had few but faithful friends. Although he seldom traveled, his was the mind of an infinite traveler through time, space, and situation. Debussy's fertile imagination and transcendent aural sensitivity fired his particular genius. The resulting musical legacy is magic. The essence of his talent and style is distilled in two volumes of Preludes for solo piano. The first book appeared in 1910, the second in 1913. These 24 astonishing works draw their inspiration from legends, literature, vaudeville, painting, architectural landmarks, archaeological objects, natural phenomena, and a multitude of scenes and personages. Debussy's Preludes confront us with a profusion of new sounds. They affirm music's ability to lend meaning to the inexpressible, to suggest the unreal with eerie realism.

Elaine Greenfield

Contents of the Recording on the Historic Piano
Debussy Preludes
Books 1 & 2

ELAINE GREENFIELD, PIANO

Piano by Blüthner of Leipzip (1907) from the Frederick Collection

Book 1 (1910)          Listen to linked audio files - Real Media (RM), MPEG3 (MP3) and Windows Media Player (WMP)

Book 1I (1913)

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