Classical File

By JOHN BELL YOUNG

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 15, 2001

VLADIMIR VIARDO, DEBUSSY: PRELUDES BOOKS I and II (PROPIANO)

Were it not for the popular culture, Claude Debussy might never have been labeled an impressionist. Debussy himself resented the characterization and lobbied against it at every opportunity.

Impressionism as a movement was already passe by 1886. By then, the symbolists, who drew their inspiration from literature, found a sympathetic charge in the 20-year-old Debussy. He admired their determination to break down external appearances in favor of the dream, or abstract idea, behind it. That posed a huge contradiction to the impressionists, who valued the perception of the externally visible for its own sake.

Debussy's 24 preludes, whatever one cares to call them, remain miracles of light and shadow, form and substance. They demand a great deal of their interpreter. The subtleties of pedaling, articulation and especially rhythm would overwhelm any pianist who places a premium solely on their technical dimensions.

Vladimir Viardo, the Russian pianist who conquered the Van Cliburn Competition in the 1970s, proves himself fully capable of meeting the preludes' thorny challenges. At turns epicene and bold, seductive and sensual, this music responds well to Viardo's luxurious but impeccably informed musical sensibility. To the sultry Lessons et les parfums he brings an appropriate air of voluptuousness and regret, while finding with ease the roguish humor in Minstrels. In Feu d'artifice, an evocation of fireworks, the poetic Viardo smartly moves beyond superficial display to illuminate its festive joyousness.

Sometimes the microphone lurks a bit too closely to the piano, but the occasional distortion above a medium volume does little to compromise Viardo's savvy musicmaking. Grade: A.

-- JOHN BELL YOUNG, Times correspondent

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