This enterprising, comprehensive two-disc set sandwiches Debussy’s 12 Etudes between the two books of the 24 Préludes. This provides an unusual sense of the composer’s increasing elusiveness as he moves from the more overt pictorialism of the Préludes to the greater abstraction and ambiguity of the Etudes. Yet the alternating bitterness and nostalgia of the Etudes composed during a final burst of creativity when Debussy, a dying man, contemplated the invasion by the Germans of his beloved France, is hardly a quantum leap: you could almost as easily attach a subtitle or after-thought to the Etudes as to the Préludes.

Both sets have been frequently recorded and it is hard to place Fou Ts’ong, a committed and distinctive Debussian, in the highest class. Too often much typically exquisite and refined detail is offset by a more abrupt and cavalier approach, almost as if Fou’s restless nature longed to escape into the light and break free of Debussy’s frequently nocturnal evocation. ‘Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir’ is unsettled when it should breathe a rich and luxuriant repose. He can lose patience with directions such as triste et lent in ‘Des pas sur la neige’ where his accentuation at, say, 2'32"-34" is stabbing rather than subtly veiled. When the demands get steeper, as in, for example, ‘Pour les Octaves’ (Etude No 5) the playing is too slow and strenuous to be joyeux et emporte and here Fou’s former magical fluency deserts him to a damaging degree.

On the credit side, the whirling menace of ‘Le vent dans la plaine’ is acutely caught, there is an impressive sense of depth in the elegaic chimes of ‘Pour les sonorités opposées’ (Etude No 10; a profoundly disturbing masterpiece in miniature) and a tapping into the rich vein of fantasy at the heart of Etudes Nos 3 and 4. But these are incidental successes and although Meridian’s sound is bold and clear, its accompanying essay intriguing and its series of photographs of the various stages of Fou Ts’ong’s career a nice touch, the performances are not strictly competitive. For the Préludes, I would recommend Gieseking and Zimerman, who offer stimulatingly opposed views and sound worlds; for the Etudes, Mitsuko Uchida.