Claude Debussy (1862-1918): "La soirée dans Grenade"

[evbabe101]

Tres manifique!

[wendy3212]

how do you play those rolling chords at the end? the distance is more than 2 octaves! do you play them as appegios?

[mickyj300x]

@wendy3212 Well, if you take a look at the score (which is available on many sites; the one I used was IMSLP) you can see that Debussy has marked for the melody to be played "m.g.", which is french for "Left Hand". So what you do is you start the roll with the left hand, continue and finish it with the right hand, and then play the (beginning) of the melody with the left hand. Hope this helps.

[wendy3212]

@mickyj300x but the melody breaks up now DX

[shaylen911]

I was lucky enough to see Canadian pianist Jamie Parker perform this live last night, and it was absolutely brilliant.

[TheCatedral]

Serait-il interressant de rapporter ici la superbe interprétation de Monsieur Jean Boguet de cette pièce, ainsi que de toute l'oeuvre pour piano de Claude Debussy?

Si pleine d'intimité et de demi-teintes impressionistes á la palette si profondément française.

Jean Boguet est un nom qu'il faut unir à Debussy. Absolument indispensable.

À mon goût, bien sûr.

[CARambolagen]

Not to forget that Debussy actually plagiarised Ravel who wrote his Habanera 5 years before. Debussy had actually asked for the manuscript after the premiere performance in march 1898...

[MidnightMoonlover8]

@CARambolagen well he did ask

[CARambolagen]

@MidnightMoonlover8

But Ravel wasn't pleased that Debussy just ripped him off, especially in the light that Debussy was the elder composer and that some critics derogatively called Ravel a debussist, wheras, when it comes to the piano Ravel vclearly was the innovator... It was Debussy who pioneered the harmonic opening, but it was Ravel who opened up the piano and took orchestratiion to the limits, which by and large haven't been greatly extended since then...

[drmgrl11]

@MidnightMoonlover8 haha good one

[mylovelylittleone]

Inspirational, a clear guide for interpretation.

[mylovelylittleone]

This is so precious! Thank you so much for posting this.

[Alexknobsob]

The harmonies and melodic lines are as if cut by scissors, foreshadowing cubism, Duchamp, and William Burroughs. 

[richclayderman]

perfect

[NemoProkofiev551]

Debussy rocks my world!

[landervast]

Double Harmonic Major Scale sounds wonderfull

[dimork]

Could you please explain, what is a double harmonic major scale??

[landervast]

for example C Db E F G Ab B C is a double harmonic major scale since it has a major third but also contains 2 intervals of one and a half tone.

[dimork]

@landervast Many thanks for your quick reply. I know about the whole tone scale, but this one is new to me. We never stop learning!

[dimork]

@landervast Many thanks for your quick reply. I know about the whole tone scale, but this one is new to me.  We never stop learning!

[Haeronthegreat]

Funny - Debussy does not play as Debussy wrote.

[malondo7]

I've often thought that the Composers are not always the best enterpreters of their own music(the reason so much of the music was given to others to perform live)But this is my fave version of this piece!..Its everything Debussy in under 6mins.!

[Enodino]

my piano teacher also says that this piece is everything debussy can you elaborate what you mean that? thanks.

[malondo7]

Well theres the overall spanish influence that seemed to be the rage around the turn of the centurey..Ravel even more so..Those lovely dark mysterious bluenotes at 1:02 that american Jazz was soon to adopt..and that burst of romance at 1:45..Estampes in all sums up Debbusy very well..The perfect recital ..

[Enodino]

that's great thanks for that.

[johnathangomez]

Debussy have his proper style,his songs like arabesque,clair de lune,makes you fly!

[yaya80020]

It's really interesting hearing Debussy play this himself... it's not how i personally imagine the piece at all... well, that's the beauty of interpretation, isn't it? i agree that the way he plays the dotted rhythms is strange... interesting emphasis. thx for posting! it's always great to hear how the composer plays his own pieces.

[nbabinska]

Thank you for posting it.

[noinin88]

How can I say how beautiful is Debussy's music?

[naniekso]

paint it if you  can :D

[stlivermore]

How novel and curious to hear Debussy himself playing this. For me Joerg Demus' rendition is both unforgettable and unrivalled. Thank you for the upload.

[cynic150]

What contrasting tempi! Very moody, atmospheric and passionate! Marvelous revelation. So convincing and colourful.

[marcxopoco]

Beautiful tone and use of pedal--as expected.

Some surges of energy and then dropping back from that at once.

His handling of the dotted eighth and sixteenth motive is interesting. Not sharply dotted, but instead in the other direction, giving the sixteenth note weight. His handling of the triplets of eighths and everything to do with the rhythm and overall meter shows how much attention he put into the area of time in playing.

Thank you for posting this, d60944.

[NOSEhow2LIV]

Well, it may be a slite improvement on the first version i ever heard of this rending, but it's still hard to believe Debussy really wanted this ponderous, lumpy, lurching effect. At best it's a big compromise, leaving the imagination to do a lot of repair work! Thanks all the same, and bravo for much of your research in your videos.

[MarshalGZhukov]

Holy shit, I didn't know that Debussy made piano rolls.