Claude Debussy : Images retrouvées
Olivier Hébert-Bouchard et Stéphane Tétreault
(atmaclassique.com/en)
Listen
Deux arabesques (Arr. for Cello and Piano by Olivier Hébert-Bouchard), L. 74 : Arabesque no 1 en mi mineur : Andantino con moto - Listen on Spotify
L’isle joyeuse (Arr. for Cello and Piano by Olivier Hébert-Bouchard), L. 109 - Listen on Spotify
Scherzo, L. 39 - Listen on Spotify
Read the Review
ATMA Classique’s Images Retrouvées is the second issue in the Images Oubliées project by cellist Stéphane Tétrault and pianist Olivier Hébert-Bouchard that focuses on the genius of Claude Debussy (atmaclassique.com/en).
The performers cite Debussy’s interest in transcription – creating piano reductions of his own orchestral works and entrusting the orchestration of his piano works to colleagues – as the spur for their desire to create and reinvent; their arrangements for cello and piano of pieces predominantly for piano solo, give the music a new range of tone colours.
The 15 tracks are arranged chronologically, and include Deux arabesques, D’un cahier d’esquisses, L’isle joyeuse and Golliwog’s Cakewalk. Tétrault plays with a warm, even tone across the cello’s entire range, sensitively accompanied by Hébert-Bouchard in a recital of few dynamic peaks. In truth, it’s much of a muchness, but when the “muchness” is presented so beautifully, who can object?