Oct 13, 2017 | Listen to Debussy’s 3rd Movement “Clair de Lune” on his “Suite bergamasque” played by Seong-Jin Cho. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of Claude Debussy’s death, 2015 Chopin Competition winner Seong-Jin Cho explores the great French composer’s piano music. …
Composer: Claude Debussy
Repertoire: Suite bergamasque, 3. Clair de Lune Place: Siemensvilla, Berlin
Produced by Sid McLauchlan [Audio]
Video Director: Jürgen Schindler
Video Production: Jürgen Schindler
Video Production Company: Jürgen Schindler Documentary Gigolos
Publisher: Editions Durand, Paris – Complete Works of Claude Debussy, Vol .I – edt. Roy Howat
Mar 23, 2024 | Drenched in the light of the moon: Claude Debussy’s “Clair de lune” is an ode to the night sky. It’s one of the French composer’s best-known pieces and it was given an emotional interpretation on 17 October 2012 at a concert in the Salle Pleyel in Paris by piano virtuoso Menahem Pressler (1923 - 2023), who was almost 90 years old at the time.
The French composer Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918) is a representative of musical Impressionism. Debussy was fond of subject matter from nature such as sea, clouds and snow and attempted to inject these phenomena of nature with musical character, whereby a formal freedom was of particular importance to him. Claude Debussy was an individualist who wasn’t afraid to ruffle feathers. He started getting noticed in 1894 with the orchestral work “Prélude à l´après-midi d´un faune”; the final breakthrough came with the opera “Pelléas et Mélisande” premiered in 1902.
The piece “Claire de lune” is part of the “Suite bergamasque“ composed by Claude Debussy in 1890. It consists of four movements; “Clair de lune“ is the third of these. The piano suite was first performed in 1905. Claude Debussy often drew inspiration from the poetry of Paul Verlaine – sensitive, somber descriptions of the natural world in accordance with late 19th-century tastes. “Clair de lune” was also inspired by an eponymous poem by Verlaine. This particular movement of the suite is a frequent inclusion on concert programs and is exceedingly popular – not just on stage. “Clair de lune” also features on many movie soundtracks.
The soloist Menahem Pressler was born as Max Pressler in 1923 in the German city of Magdeburg. His family is Jewish. After the Nazis came to power he fled the Holocaust in 1939 with his parents, initially emigrating to Palestine and then to the US in 1940. The other members of his family were murdered by the Nazis. In the year 1946, the young Pressler won the Debussy International Piano Competition in San Francisco, and remained in California thereafter to continue his studies. In 1955, he founded the world-famous “Beaux Arts Trio”. The ensemble went on to make more than 50 recordings. Many musicians played with the trio until it gave its final concert in 2008. Pressler has also been performing as a soloist throughout his life. Menahem Pressler once said: "I'm still hungry for music." And he remained that way on into old age. The piano virtuoso died in London in 2023 at the age of 99.
Oct 13, 2017 • Listen to Debussy’s 3rd Movement Clair de lune on his Suite bergamasque played by Seong-Jin Cho. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of Claude Debussy’s death, 2015, Chopin Competition winner Seong-Jin Cho explores the great French composer’s piano music.
Listen to Debussy’s 3rd Movement Clair de lune on his Suite bergamasque played by Seong-Jin Cho. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of Claude Debussy’s death, 2015 Chopin Competition winner Seong-Jin Cho explores the great French composer’s piano music. | Place: Siemensvilla, Berlin
May 22, 2018 • Le pianiste Alain Planès interprète les Deux Arabesques de Claude Debussy. Enregistré le 9 mars 2018 à l’Auditorium de la Maison de la Radio (Paris).
Qui n’a pas entendu au moins une fois les cascades de triolets qui ouvrent la première des deux Arabesques de Debussy ? Fluide, mouvante, son écriture marque une nette évolution par rapport à la Danse bohémienne composée un peu moins de dix années plus tôt, en 1880. Les deux morceaux sont édités pour la première fois en 1891, trois ans auprès la date de leur composition. Écrits tous deux ternaire, le premier débute en mi majeur, tandis que le second, d’un tempo plus rapide, arbore les couleurs de la tonalité de sol majeur.
