Roy Howat
Roy Howat’s Debussy is clear, rhythmically alert and free of romantic haze. Across four volumes of the complete piano music, scholar and pianist meet: humour surfaces, textures stay polyphonic, and the score speaks without varnish.
Howat plays French piano music from inside the notation. As an editor of the Paris Complete Debussy Edition and author of Debussy in Proportion, he brings manuscript knowledge straight to the keys: note values corrected from Debussy’s own rolls, pedalling that respects bass durations, low dynamics that keep four voices audible. The Études and both books of Préludes sound intelligent rather than vaporous; Estampes is exemplary in shaded colour without blur. Wit lands cleanly in Général Lavine and Pickwick, while early suites and Children’s Corner stay dance-bright and architecturally plain. World-premiere sides such as Les soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du charbon and Intermède sit naturally beside the canon. The result is understated authority: pellucid, unmannered Debussy that trusts clarity over atmosphere.
Roy Howat is featured on the following titles
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.
Credit: Liner Notes
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.
Credit: Liner notes
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.
Credit: Liner Notes
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.
Credit: Liner Notes