Mike Verta Impressions

Marius Constant, who had an intimate knowledge of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, published Impressions de Pelléas, published in 1992 an abridged version (95 minutes instead of 150) for six singers and two pianists. In an intense flow of music, he telescopes the five acts with great finesse, removing a few scenes and making a fair number of cuts and a few minimal adjustments to the musical material. For the scenography, he suggested, ‘We are in an early twentieth-century salon’ This reflects the fact that during the genesis of Pelléas, Debussy regularly played fragments of it for his circle of friends. In this version, both listeners and performers are involuntarily swept towards the origin and essence of Debussy’s masterpiece: a ‘music of the soul’ in which we can all recognise our own Mélisande, Pelléas, Arkel, Geneviève, Yniold and Golaud. This chamber version of the opera is completed by the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune in Debussy’s own transcription for two pianos and the suite En blanc et noir. The two pianos used are the new straight-strung instruments built in Belgium by Chris Maene at the request of Daniel Barenboim.

This is not an official, professionally filmed DVD, rather a lovingly put together keepsake created in a limited number for absolute Eloy fans…

The rich profusion of musical idioms employed by Pancho Vladigerov, filtered through the prism of his dazzlingly virtuoso piano writing, makes for some exciting listening. Nadejda Vlaeva responds thrillingly to the extreme pianistic challenges.

Born in Nagoya in Japan, Etsuko Hirose began studying the piano at the age of three. When she was six she performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto no.26 with an orchestra. After pursuing her studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris and at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in the class of Bruno Rigutto and Nicholas Angelich, she has received the guidance of Alfred Brendel, Marie-Francoise Bucquet and Jorge Chamine.