Complete piano music - Debussy
Philippe Cassard built the four programmes of his "Debussy Day" not chronologically but chose rather to draw pieces together by virtue of their musical nature and to order them carefully to reveal connections and contrasts.
As an interpreter of Debussy on the Irish concert platform Cassard has been without peer in the decade since the Dublin International Piano Competition first brought him to prominence here. His playing avoids the cliches of an "impressionism" that's vague. He insists on a manner where everything is distinct but unfailingly suggestive. He steers clear of effects that are generalised or easy. His creation and blending of colour is always exact, nothing is allowed to bleed or run where it shouldn't. His handling of rhythm is supple and firm. He understands where the boundaries of elasticity and rigour need to be drawn, and is as adept at launching the composer's miracles of flight as at limning the frequent stasis of his contemplation.
It is his gift to remind us of how modern, even shocking, some of this music was when new, indeed, how modern some of it still sounds, particularly the Etudes, which have only in recent years begun to get the attention they deserve.
His particular affinity with the two books of Preludes is already well known and, in spite of the pressures of the day, nothing here disappointed. The smaller and less well-known works were delivered with as much love and care as the major pieces, and, with the exception of Wagner's Traume (its insistent repeated chords sounding like an alien intrusion), the single pieces by four related composers (the others being Rameau, Faure and Chopin) made their points well. And it was interesting to hear the spirits of yet other men hovering over some of the music (momentarily, for instance, Grieg and Chabrier in the opening programme).
As an all-day experience for the listener, this Debussy Day was both exacting and stimulating. For Cassard, it was singular triumph, and as a 10th-anniversary gesture towards the country which helped launch his international career, it has firmly left the larger debt with us.
