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Why yes indeed, this is a very recent recording of Debussy by Maurizio Pollini (with his own son Daniele at his side for En blanc et en noir), made in late 2016 in Munich's sumptuous Herkulesaal. In it, the old lion of the piano unfurls for us the sumptuous and enigmatic musical tapestry of the Second Book of Debussy's Preludes, finished in 1912: a superlatively delicate pattern, more sketched and suggested than really followed, the pianist being enjoined not to "overdo it". Maurizio Pollini, 74 when the recording was made, can measure his performance out perfectly, and knows how to give the impression that the music is being written and improvised as he plays. And the album closes with En blanc et en noir for two pianos, of which Debussy wrote in 1915: "I have suffered greatly from the long drought imposed upon my brain by the war"; after months of silence, and his work editing Chopin, he entered a period of fevered creativity which continued with the two Books of the Études and the final sonatas. First entitled "Caprices en blanc et noir", the three pieces of En blanc et noir refer neatly to the instrument's keys and, as Debussy writes in 1916, "they aim to draw their colour, their emotion, from the simple piano, like Velasquez's greys". Grey, the fruit of the meeting of black and white... © SM/Qobuz

Released as one of nine new albums dedicated to Debussy by harmonia mundi to mark the centenary of the French composer's birth, this volume offers the Second Book of the Preludes played by Alexander Melnikov on an Erard piano. The world of Debussyan piano relied so heavily on timbre that pianists and editors alike often prefer one or another make so as to get a grip on the specificities of the music. Alexander Melnikov is one of those rare Russian artists to take an interest in ancient instruments. This student of Sviatoslav Richter was quickly captivated by this kind of work, working with Andreas Staier and Alexey Lubimov and playing with specialised ensembles like the Concerto Köln or the Berlin Akademie für Alte Musik. His performance of the Preludes by Debussy at London's Wigmore Hall was particularly well received by critics who described the Russian pianist as a "sorcerer" who is highlighting "ravishing", "violent", "terrifying" music. An iridescent orchestral masterpiece, La Mer is difficult to boil down to a four-handed piano piece, and Debussy disowned his transcription, leaving it to André Caplet to prepare another one for two four-handed pianos. Alexandre Melnikov and Olga Pashchenko have taken up the challenge to prove that the auteur's transcription is not at all "unplayable". © François Hudry/Qobuz

Day after day, week after week, there are so many piano recordings to wade through, and very few, alas, are worth listening to. But this new recording of Debussy’s Préludes is extraordinary. The pianist Francesco Piemontesi is a disciple of Alfred Brendel, Perahia, Alexis Weissenberg, and especially Cécile Ousset, who gave him a sheet-note copy of these Préludes as annotated by Marcel Ciampi – upon which the indications of Debussy himself were included. Piemontesi is, unquestionably, at the top of his technical game, this almost doesn’t need mentioning, and he works hard to get all kinds of conceivable shades out of his piano – especially the most impossible and unimaginable. A piano evoking such a variety of colours is more than just a scarcity; it is something unusual, and, in the hands of Piemontesi, it reaches the heights of the ‘orchestral’. His pianistic pallet is infinite in its sonorities, his handling of the instrument like black magic. A truly great Debussy interpretation that unfolds the revelations of the original partition. © SM/Qobuz

The double-disc set C'Était Ici presents Yann Tiersen live in concert, performing highlights from his five studio albums and his score for the French film Amélie, the work for which he may be most widely known. While "La Valse d'Amélie" and "L'Autre Valse d'Amélie" sound just as sparkling and magical here as they did in the movie and on its soundtrack, and songs such as "C'Était Ici" and "Rue des Cascades" follow suit, the album gives equal time to the other sides of Tiersen's music. The pieces with vocals are particularly striking, especially "La Rupture," a winding epic that is as eerie as it is beautiful. The mellow, romantic "La Terrasse," meanwhile, highlights the undercurrents of French pop and rock that influence his work. Hints of French folk can be heard on tracks like "Déjà Loin" and the modern-day gypsy fiddling of "Sur le Fil," emphasizing the fact that while Tiersen blends elements of classical, pop, rock, and folk into his music, all of it is quintessentially French. The live format especially suits some of his more energetic songs, such as "Le Jour d'Avant" and "Le Banquet," both of which feature explosive, rock-oriented drumming. Then again, the beautifully intimate renditions of Serge Gainsbourg's "La Noyée" and Tiersen's own "Le Moulin" are just as powerful in a quiet way. The second disc digs deeper into Tiersen's discography, offering more of his longer, more involved compositions such as the swooning "Bagatelle," a collaboration with Dominique Ané, and the 12-minute "Fevrier," which conjures images of the grayest, longest-seeming month with ticking percussion and jittery, atonal pianos, guitars, and brass. Other highlights include the dreamy "Le Méridien" and "La Parade," which feature appropriately somnolent vocals from Lisa Germano, another of Tiersen's frequent collaborators, and the gorgeous "Monochrome," a paradoxically vivid description of day-to-day tedium sung by Ané. C'Était Ici functions almost like a greatest-hits collection of Tiersen's work: a welcome reminder for fans of his diverse talent, and an introduction to the rest of his work for those charmed by Amélie. While most two-hour live albums don't necessarily make a good introduction to an artist's work, C'Était Ici is a very happy exception to that rule.© Heather Phares /TiVo

"To link Debussy with the compositions of Tristan Murail is to place musical evolution in a historical logic of sonic upheavals", says the pianist François-Frédéric Guy. Fascinated by idioms that revolutionise music, today he takes us on a journey between two immensely creative figures. At a distance of more than a century, Claude Debussy and Tristan Murail reveal the same concern for precision in writing and preservation of freedom of thought. The works assembled in this album metamorphose colours and spaces: they offer unprecedented poetic imagination, constantly expanding dreamlike worlds. The impression that remains on the listener's memory is above all one of astonishing and intense emotion. © La Dolce Volta

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