Debussy - The Philips recordings 1951-1957

Hans Henkemans

Released on 3/16/18 by Universal Music Division Decca Records France
Main artists: Hans Henkemans
Genre: Solo Piano

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A brainchild of two veterans of the Philips label – including Tom Deacon, the instigator of the phenomenal "The Great Pianists of the 20th Century" in the 1990s – this re-release of the recordings of the complete works of Debussy played by Hans Henkemans for the Dutch label from 1951 to 1957 will remain one of the most beautiful celebrations marking this centenary year. These historic recordings, which have yet to be released as a single collection, were made at about the same time as the recordings by Marcelle Meyer (Les Discophiles Français), Albert Ferber (Ducretet-Thomson), Walter Gieseking (His Master's Voice), Menahem Pressler (MGM Records) and Reine Gianoli (Westminster): but they stand out from their contemporaries for their concern for textual precision and above all a complete absence of impressionism. The composer Hans Henkeman, born in 1913 and a major figure in the musical life of the Netherlands from the 1930s to the 1960s, was mainly interested in the range of the French composer's rhythmic vocabulary.
Very often, and in particular in modern cycles (Estampes, Images, Children's Corner), the rhythm seems to overshadow the purely harmonic aspect, even if Hans Henkemans' naturally clear and limpid piano playing style reproduces these elements of Debussy's musical world without adulteration. Reflets dans l’eau stuns with its rapid tempo, its somewhat pithy expressiveness, but also with its fiery surges, its powerful accents in the fortissimo passages: there is also a freedom, a great broadness, in Henkemans' piano, which lends an almost austere aspect to the music's overall rhythmic stature. Moreover, Cloches à travers les feuilles, the greatest and also the most difficult of the Images pour piano, surprises the listener as much for its variations at a fulgurating tempo as for the great clarity of its articulation. But for many, the best of Henkemans' treasury of Debussy remains the 12 Etudes, where, naturally, his strict and utterly original playing style is perfectly matched to this mature, extreme cycle. Few musicians have brought such speed to Pour les degrés chromatiques or such a rage to Pour les agréments. Stunning!

As Tom Deacon quite rightly puts it in the liner notes, "these interpretations can and should be seen as the forerunners of the modern approach to Debussy represented by the late Charles Rosen, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, and even the young Michel Béroff as well as by the conductor Pierre Boulez, all of whom worked to strip the carbuncles from Debussy's music that are simply the result of the normal wear and tear of successive generations of mis(or should I say over-)interpretations. This re-release should really set the record straight. © PYL/Qobuz

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Debussy - The Philips recordings 1951-1957

Hans Henkemans

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