Debussy: Estampes, (Perianes, Goerner)

Two drop-dead awesome recordings of Debussy’s famous triptych, with the first on some days taking its place as my favourite Debussy recording of all time. Perianes takes the work at a slower tempo than you’ll usually find, and there’s a general anti-virtuoso character to his playing. But the colour, melodic shaping and *obscenely* fine dynamic tiering he generates is so much more than worth the tempo tradeoff. In Pagodes, I don’t think any other recording has managed to make the sections at 0:41 and 1:20 sound completely improvised; and in Jardins a whole bunch of overlooked textures are caught – the alternate-bar bass accents starting from 13:42, or the differentiation between the semiquavers and the grace notes at (14:43). Goerner’s recording has a brighter hue than Perianes – quicker, the fast runs more sharply etched, a little more generous with primary colours and a little less insistent on pastel shades. Where Perianes is sphinxlike in La soirée, Goerner has heady exultancy, and if Peria