It seems only a while ago that Julius Katchen exclaimed in wonder over his protégé, Pascal Rogé, a pianist now in his middle-fifties. Many years on, Roge’s devotion to the French cause remains undimmed (he has already recorded sizeable amounts of Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Saint-Saëns, though less of Fauré) and this disc of the complete Debussy Préludes has all his improvisatory warmth and charm, qualities that can take you to the very heart of the composer’s evanescent world. Rogé is not afraid to arouse controversy in his open-hearted parody of Debussy’s alternately sly and robust serenader (La sérénade interrompué), in his scurrying response to a term such as mouvement (Minstrels) or in his novel alternative to a more abstract view of Les tièrces alternées. But these are passing idiosyncrasies, uncharacteristic of a pianist anxious to obey both the letter and the ever-elusive spirit of the score. More generally, Rogé reminds you that he is very much a pianist who suggests rather than states. Less admirably, those attuned to, say, Zimerman’s crystalline reappraisal of the Préludes will find Rogé a less incisive, even lax advocate. The opening of Les fées sont d’exquises is oddly lethargic (rapide et leger?) and Bruyères is less poised than from the finest Debussy pianists. Technically, Rogé is no match for Zimerman’s knife-edge virtuosity in Feux d’artifice and so, despite many incidental felicities, Rogé’s Debussy fails to compete with his many distinguished rivals in the catalogue, and most of all with the incomparable Gieseking. Onyx Classics’ sound is suitably refined but a reference to Marguerite Long as ‘the most important French woman pianist of the 20th century’ is more than provocative.