Debussy: Chamber Music

Album review

The chamber works of Claude Debussy heard on this album represent bookends of the composer's output. The G major Piano Trio is a very early student composition that in many ways is more indicative of his teachers' compositional styles than the more distinctly recognizable characteristics of Debussy's more mature works. On the other end of the timeline are the sonatas for cello and violin, which were among the last two works Debussy was to complete. Here, listeners will at once recognize the tremendous amount of growth and development that occurred during Debussy's relatively short career. The performances offered by members of the Trio Portici are, in general, only adequate. In the Piano Trio, Debussy frequently calls upon the strings to perform in unison or octaves; violinist Damien Pardoen and cellist Luc Tooten struggle to match intonation throughout these sometimes long passages. Intonation and clear execution of technically demanding passages continue to plague Pardoen in his performance of the Violin Sonata; this is especially true in the perpetual movement of the Finale, where the nearly constant triplets come across as difficult. The most even performance on the album comes from Tooten and pianist Stephane de May. Intonation and technical execution are far less of a factor in their performance of the cello sonata; Tooten's sound is somewhat thin and weak, though de May seems to have to hold back considerably to allow the cello to be heard.
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