Claude Debussy (1862-1918): "Le vent dans la plaine"

The composer Claude Debussy needs little introduction. As a pianist, he was noted for his avoidance of the crisp, dry and articulated style which typified French pianism of the nineteenth century. His style of playing was simple, highly tone-conscious and completely uncluttered by over-expressive angst.

This piece is number three in the first book of Préludes. The recording is a piano roll recording made by Debussy for Welte in 1913 (just three years after the work was composed). The piano rolls for Welte are amongst the most accurate we have, conveying the original performed dynamics, attack and pedalling rather faithfully, and when a good roll is played on a properly conditioned piano, the problems of dubious rhythmic bumpiness which infect many roll playbacks can vanish. This rendition seems as fine as we could hope for.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Claude
• Debussy
• piano
• recording
• classical
• Le
• vent
• dans
• la
• plaine
• Préludes
• Book
• no.3

[Meladriana]

Actually the title of this piece is "Le vent dans la plaine" not "...pleine"

(= the wind in the plain) (pleine means full)

Btw I prefer Michel Béroff's interpretation.

[d60944]

@Meladriana Corrected now. Silly mistake! Thanks.

[Polygor]

I'm very interested in Debussy's interpretations of his own work, so this series of videos that d60944 has uploaded is a godsend.

[cynic150]

Debussy here makes Michelangeli sound like a boring student!

[iGookin]

I wish I could play Debussy.

[nostalgiacreep]

there are a couple of wax recordings of debussy too on the cd this is from, just thought i'd mention. the sound quality is not as "good", but the knowledge you are listening to debussy himself playing is wonderful!

[rosenpwn0rt]

They can still be played back on a piano from Debussy's time. For example, I played on a piano, ( I forget the brand name) from 1896, one Debussy would have use, and it was amazing the volume I was able to achieve on this 10 foot piano.

[saintneko]

These are not actual recordings, but piano roll recordings played back and recorded at a later date. Otherwise there's no way the audio quality would sound this good. Check out some actual wax cylinder recordings of Rachmaninoff if you'd like to hear how awful and tinny recordings from this era really sound.

[DougtheAsian]

A wonderful find. 00:52 to 1:04 is like a lightning storm. It is a pity that we can no longer create that amplification with newer pianos, because his were double strung.