Pierre-Laurent Aimard - Debussy: 12 Etudes, Images Sets 1 & 2 (2001)

Audiences recognize Pierre-Laurent Aimard for his expertise in twentieth century music, so it's no surprise to find him recording the music of Debussy. The composers he usually plays (e.g., Messiaen, Bartók, Ligeti) wrote more percussively for the piano than Debussy did, which perhaps explains why Aimard's Debussy isn't as smooth and soft as it could be. He can play quietly and gently, but there is distinctness in each note, no matter how gently or fast he is playing, that prevents the cushiony softness, those waves of color and sound usually expected in Debussy's Images and Études. In Reflets dans l'eau there are individual drops of water that don't quite meld into ripples of water. There are also a couple of points in Reflets where the melody is lost. Aimard comes closer to blending the notes in Cloches à travers les feuilles and Poissons d'or, but still doesn't quite make it. The separateness and semi-firmness of notes and chords isn't so much of a problem in the Études, particularly the first book, because they are less about painting pictures and more about studying piano technique. Of the whole disc, the Étude pour les huit doigts comes closest to the watercolor sound. Aimard's Debussy is good, but if one were expecting to see a Monet and got a Seurat instead, no matter how beautiful that Seurat is, there would be some degree of disappointment at not seeing what was expected.