Debussy - Images for piano

Images  by Claude Debussy for piano (in 2 series)

Serie 1 :

Editor : Ernst-Günter Heinemann.
Fingering: Hans-Martin Theopold.
Preface: François Lesure

Titles :

• Reflets dans l'eau
• Hommage à Rameau
• Mouvement

“Have you played the Images ...? Without undue vanity, I believe that these three pieces can hold their own and will assume a place in the piano literature ... to the left of Schumann or to the right of Chopin ... as you like it.” Thus wrote Debussy in a letter to his publisher and friend Jacques Durand in 1905. Debussy’s prophecy was to become true. The pieces have become a fixed part of piano repertoire. Incidentally: for the slow movement Hommage à Rameau Debussy, an innovator who was still aware of tradition, was inspired by a performance of Castor et Pollux in 1903.

Serie 2 :

Editor : Ernst-Günter Heinemann.
Fingering : Hans-Martin Theopold.
Preface : François Lesure

Titles :

• Cloches à travers les feuilles
• Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut
• Poissons d'or

The cycle with three movements, composed at the end of 1907 and published at the beginning of the next year, contains a singular innovation: Debussy notated the highly differentiated piano part that goes into the extreme registers on three staves. The first movement (Cloches à travers les feuilles) is reminiscent of a deathknell, the second (Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut) conjures up far-off India or also China; and as for the third movement (Poissons d’or) Debussy was inspired by an enamel painting of goldfish in his study. The dedicatee of the third movement, Ricardo Viñes, gave the first performance of the cycle.