Programs · Episode

Debussy, the Pianist

Aired: Thursday, May 31, 2018 @ 9:00 am
Hosted by Miles Hoffman

Many great composers have also been great pianists, genuine virtuosos who in addition to composing led successful careers as performers. One gifted composer/pianist who did NOT have a big performing career was Claude Debussy. He did often perform his own works, but he tended to get nervous, and he didn’t enjoy playing in public.

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Many great composers have also been great pianists, genuine virtuosos who in addition to composing led successful careers as performers. One gifted composer/pianist who did NOT have a big performing career was Claude Debussy. He did often perform his own works, but he tended to get nervous, and he didn’t enjoy playing in public. And yet by all accounts Debussy was a wonderful pianist, especially noted for his remarkable “touch” at the keyboard.

“How could one forget his suppleness, the caress of his touch?” wrote the famous French pianist Marguerite Long, a contemporary of Debussy. “While floating over the keys with a curiously penetrating gentleness, he could achieve an extraordinary power of expression.” Alfredo Casella, another great pianist and Debussy contemporary wrote, “He made the impression of playing directly on the strings of the instrument with no intermediate mechanism; the effect was a miracle of poetry.” 

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