Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
Deutsche Grammophon · 4837701 · 78 minutes
Víkingur Ólafsson has a gift for finding the thread that connects composers across centuries, and pairing Debussy with Rameau turns out to be an inspired move — both writers share a fascination with ornament and color that feels almost tactile at the piano. What strikes you immediately is how intentional every choice sounds, like the program itself is making an argument you hadn’t considered before but can’t stop thinking about once you’ve heard it.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 27th March 2020
- Gramophone Magazine — April 2020 — Editor’s Choice
- BBC Music Magazine — June 2020 — Recording of the Month
- Diapason d’Or — May 2020 — Nouveauté
“He’s done it again…it is clear from the outset that this is no lazy selection of favourites…His playing never feels self-indulgent of inappropriate…There is never any doubt that this is Ólafsson’s…”
— BBC Music Magazine, June 2020,5 out of 5 stars
Steven Osborne (piano)
Hyperion · CDA67530 · 77 minutes
Debussy’s Préludes live or die by a pianist’s ability to conjure atmosphere without being precious about it — these pieces are full of fog and moonlight and irony, and they need a player who can hold all of that at once. Osborne finds exactly that balance, bringing a clarity of touch that lets the harmony breathe without ever feeling clinical or detached. The two books flow together here with real conviction, and that Feux d’artifice finale lands like the best kind of surprise.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — October 2006 — Editor’s Choice
- Penguin Guide — Rosette
- Building a Library — March 2018 — Also Recommended
“Steven Osborne’s pedigree in French repertoire is such that it has been almost inevitable that he would record Debussy’s Préludes at some point. He has much in his favour, notably a marvellous…”
— BBC Music Magazine, August 2006,3 out of 5 stars
Quatuor Ebène
Erato · 5190452 · 80 minutes
There’s something about the way the Quatuor Ebène handle Ravel’s trademark crescendos here that immediately tells you you’re in good hands — they let them breathe and build without smoothing out the tension into something politely classical. The Fauré sits at the heart of this programme like a secret, its long melodic lines given exactly the kind of tactful rubato that makes the music feel personal rather than prettified. All three quartets share a certain French luminosity, and this recording finds the connective tissue between them in a way that makes 80 minutes feel like one continuous, deeply satisfying conversation.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 5th October 2009
- Building a Library — March 2009 — First Choice
- Gramophone Magazine — December 2008 — Editor’s Choice
- Gramophone Awards — 2009 — Recording of the Year
“Dynamic ranges are wide, with Ravel’s crescendos not underplayed in any mistaken attempt at classicism, and rubatos are applied with tactful expressivity.”
— BBC Music Magazine, November 2008,5 out of 5 stars
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)BBC Symphony Orchestra, Yan Pascal Tortelier
Chandos · CHSA5084 · 76 minutes
Ravel’s two piano concertos sit in fascinating tension with each other — the G major all jazz-soaked swagger and the D major (written for the left hand alone) carrying something darker and more unsettled underneath its bravado. Bavouzet navigates both worlds with real intelligence, finding the wit in the G major without ever letting it tip into mere showmanship. The Debussy Fantaisie is the hidden gem here, a piece that can feel diffuse in lesser hands but glows with a kind of inevitable logic in this performance.
Awards:
- Gramophone Awards — 2011 — Winner – Concerto
- BBC Music Magazine Awards — 2012 — Orchestral Award Winner
“[Bavouzet] turns in a performance of the Fantaisie that illuminates this uneven yet magical work like no other. As to the Ravel concertos, I have no hesitation in saying these are the greatest…”
— Classic FM Magazine, January 2011,5 out of 5 stars
Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (piano), Tanguy de Williencourt (piano), Magali Mosnier (flute), Antoine Tamestit viola), Xavier de Maistre (harp), Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), Javier Perianes (piano)
Harmonia Mundi · HMM902303 · 53 minutes
Debussy wrote his final three sonatas in the shadow of illness and war, and there’s something almost unbearably concentrated about them — all ornament stripped away, every gesture carrying weight. Faust and Melnikov bring that clarity into sharp focus, playing as if they’re reading between the lines of the score rather than just through it. The assembled cast across all three works is remarkable, and the ensemble playing has that rare quality where everyone seems to be listening as much as they’re performing.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — November 2018 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recording of the Week — 16th November 2018
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2018
- BBC Music Magazine — Christmas 2018 — Chamber Choice
“Until recently this music was almost invariably viewed and experienced through a prism of 19th-century rhetoric – listening to Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov deftly tracing the evanescent…”
— BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2018,5 out of 5 stars
Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Renaud Capuçon (violin), Bertrand Chamayou (piano), Edgar Moreau (cello), Gerard Caussé (viola), Marie-Pierre Langlamet (harp)
Erato · 9029577396 · 65 minutes
Debussy’s late chamber works carry this bittersweet, searching quality — written as he was dying of cancer, they feel like someone reaching for beauty with real urgency, and that emotional undertow is exactly what this ensemble captures so naturally. Pahud, Capuçon, Chamayou, and the rest bring a genuine warmth to the music rather than treating it as delicate French porcelain to be handled at arm’s length. There’s a sensuality here that the BBC rightly noticed, and it makes the Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp in particular feel alive in ways some more cautious readings simply don’t.
Awards:
- BBC Music Magazine — Recording of the Month
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2017
- BBC Music Magazine Awards — 2018 — Winner – Chamber
- Building a Library — June 2018 — Also recommended
“A sense of joy in collegial music-making pervades these performances. Unlike many, violinist Renaud Capuçon and pianist Bertrand Chamayou and their colleagues do not avoid the vein of sensual…”
— BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2017,5 out of 5 stars
Behzod Abduraimov (piano)
Alpha · ALPHA653 · 83 minutes
Behzod Abduraimov brings something genuinely rare to this recital — a sense that Debussy’s Images, the Chopin Ballades, and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition aren’t just showpieces lined up for effect, but three composers in deep conversation about what the piano can actually do. The playing has that quality where technical command disappears completely into musical thought, which is exactly what Fanfare was getting at when they put him in the company of the greats. At 83 minutes, this is a serious evening of music, and Abduraimov earns every second of it.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — July 2026 — Critics’ Choice 2021
- Gramophone Magazine — January 2021 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recording of the Week — 22nd January 2021
- Record Review — 23rd January 2021 — Record of the Week
“This is more than a flawless recital played with technical bravura and a born soloist’s confidence. Abduraimov is a major pianist, worth talking about in the same breath as the international…”
— Fanfare, May/June 2021
The Nash Ensemble
Hyperion · CDA68463 · 76 minutes
Debussy spent his final years racing against illness to complete a planned set of six chamber sonatas, and only three made it — but what three they are, each one a small miracle of texture and colour that feels both ancient and completely of its own moment. The Nash Ensemble brings exactly the kind of collective listening these pieces demand, with musical lines that seem to breathe across instruments as if the ensemble shares a single set of lungs. Pair that with the String Quartet — one of the most achingly beautiful things Debussy ever wrote — and you’ve got 76 minutes that genuinely rewards close attention.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — February 2025 — Editor’s Choice
- BBC Music Magazine — March 2025 — Chamber Choice
“Musical lines pass in a single, continuous breath from one instrument to the next, and the sensual, dreamlike soundscapes are tinged with immaculately drawn moments of both despair and joy….”
— BBC Music Magazine, March 2025,5 out of 5 stars
