Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) was a French composer whose harmony, colour and flexible sense of key reshaped European music at the turn of the twentieth century. Piano, orchestral and chamber works from his maturity remain central to the repertoire.
His only completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, sealed his international reputation in 1902. Orchestral scores such as Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, the Nocturnes and La mer offered an alternative to the German symphonic tradition.
The piano music is equally defining: Clair de lune, the two books of Préludes, the Images, Estampes, Children's Corner and the late Études expanded the instrument's atmosphere and touch. Songs after Symbolist poetry, the cello and violin sonatas, and chamber works from his final years complete a catalogue that still marks the passage from late Romanticism into modernism.
Claude Debussy is featured on the following titles
Le Tango Perpetuel
Ian Munro, superb pianist and imaginative composer, turns piano masterworks into chamber colour for the Australia Ensemble. The disc also preserves a rare late performance by tenor Gerald English in Satie’s Sports et Divertissements.
Barber & Debussy
David Berlin’s debut recital gathers gems of the 20th-century cello repertoire. The Barber and Debussy sonatas stand among the instrument’s masterpieces, while Bloch, Falla and Granados complete a programme long favoured in the recital room.
Claude Debussy: Piano Music, Vol. 4
This is the fourth and final disc in Roy Howat’s complete Claude Debussy piano music. The major works are the Arabesques, Suite bergamasque and Children's Corner, with early pieces and a world-premiere Intermède.
Claude Debussy: Piano Music, Vol. 3
Roy Howat continues his survey of Claude Debussy's piano music, eventually to occupy four CDs. Book 1 of the Préludes is the main offering, and Howat's performances allow us to hear these pieces in a new light.
Claude Debussy: Piano Music, Vol. 2
Roy Howat continues his four-volume Debussy survey with Préludes Book 2, the early Images of 1894, wartime pieces and an unofficial second Suite bergamasque.
Claude Debussy: Piano Music, Vol. 1
The first of a four-CD set of Debussy’s complete piano music, played by Roy Howat, an internationally respected scholar of this repertoire.
Compositions by Claude Debussy also appear on
Porgy & Bess Fantasy: Music for Two Pianos
In the early 1980s two of Australia’s finest pianists joined forces in masterpieces of the piano-duet literature. The set draws on concert and studio sessions from a period when such collaborations were still readily captured.
Cafe Fiddle
After the success of his Tall Poppies Brahms sonatas with Milton Kaye, Australian violinist Ben Breen reunited with the veteran pianist for a second disc. Recorded near the end of Kaye’s life, it became the last chapter in the accompanist’s long recording career.
Romancing the Oboe
Oboist David Nuttall and guitarist Timothy Kain turn romantic miniatures into a warm chamber programme. Familiar favourites sit beside Brazilian sambas and Nielsen’s incidental music.
For Flute & Guitar
Virginia Taylor and Timothy Kain play French, Spanish and South American music for flute and guitar. Both were on the staff of the Canberra School of Music and had long performed together in chamber combinations.