Claude Debussy - The Welte Mignon Mystery, Vol. 12 (2021)

It could be seen as an acoustic glimpse under the pianistic rock of music history: historical recordings with composers who give their own works the best - sometimes only half the best - to cheer an audience at the time, to genuine interest that was not yet in possession of hundreds of records was like us in the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. Debussy and Ravel were composers by profession. In no case did they make their communicative drag across the continents as interpreters. But they knew about their mission, they knew their scores, although one shouldn't be under any illusions. Of course: they knew everything they had ever written down. But at the moment of the sound-phraseological reawakening on a documentation device, however technically well-founded, they felt free to think further, not simply reproduce them. They knew - as did Bartók when he sat down at the piano on his own account - that what was put on paper was only a snapshot of what was thought, what was desired. The interpreter, especially the composer, when he dedicates himself to what he has written, will move on to new shores by correcting and spinning with his world frozen in printed notes, even if - as with Debussy and Ravel - it may mostly be about nuances .

Compared to “modern” recordings by Gieseking, Casadesus, Francois, Richter, Benedetti Michelangeli, Gulda, Zimerman and even younger ones like Trpceski. Boffard or Hamelin - the sound of the role recordings, which have been superbly reworked as always with Tacet and reanimated on a modern instrument, seem a bit shaky in their diction, and in terms of precision they are not on the level that is certified even for the youngest competitors from all corners of the world. On the other hand, these self-interpretations have a scent and charm, testify to the intimate relationship between the creative impulse and the direct, close relationship to the creative reaction.