Esther Birringer: Debussy

Album review

Clair de lune and several of the other big Debussy hits are included in the program offered here by pianist Esther Birringer, and there is nothing for which she doesn't have a good deal of competition. Yet Birringer, a pianist who doesn't record often and thinks the music through when she does, offers distinctive readings. She includes a note saying that she has always been inspired by Monet, but actually, her Debussy is not so much of the "Impressionist" type (and actually fits with Debussy's own dislike of that term). Birringer has a flawless, fluent technique, and she applies it to Debussy in music that reveals a good deal of contrapuntal art if it is given the chance. One won't hear hazy moonscapes in Birringer's playing, and the time Debussy spends on the border between sound and silence is never more than straightforwardly rendered. However, a piece like Mouvement, from Book I of Images, is jewel-like. Rubicon Classics did well to record Birringer in a studio, in this case, the SWR Studio Kaiserslautern in Germany, for maximum clarity is what she is about. This is fresh Debussy, something that is not so easily accomplished.
© James Manheim /TiVo