[Skybird]

Claude Debussy - Claire de Lune



The pianist is Francois-Joelle Thiollier. I like Debussy very much and have listened to many different pianists. The overwhelming majority of them play Debussy either way too fast, or with almost kitschig emotional hyperdrive, but with Debussy it is a bit like with Chopin: the music already is emotional the way the composer has set the accents and directions for how to play it - leave it to that and do not add more emotion, else you easily overdo things. Thilloier gets the balance between sober expression and subjective interpretation right, for me he is the reference when it comes to Debussy, and I compare every other pianist to his four albums with Debussy's piano works. Although having won many classical competitions in his younger years, almost nobody knows him, which surprises me until today. For playing Debussy, he is my first choice interpret.