If you are looking for a reaction to Gieseking’s opalescent if often careless magic or to Krystian Zimerman’s crystalline alternative, then Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s way with Debussy’s Préludes provides yet another entirely different viewpoint. For him, Debussy must always be allowed his own voice and few performances on record have proceeded with so little impediment or with greater transparency and lucidity. Yet time and again I found myself longing for Aimard to step out into the light instead of confining himself so exclusively to shadows and half-lights.

The shutters are kept firmly closed and Aimard’s restraint (a provocatively fast tempo for ‘Brouillards’ notwithstanding) makes for soporific, even laissez-faire listening in, for example, ‘Les collines d’Anacapri’, ‘La sérénade interrompue’, ‘La danse de Puck’ and ‘Minstrels’. ‘Les tierces alternées’ is gently rather than urgently propelled; and where is the sudden increase in momentum and intensity (movement) before the close of ‘Ondine’? ‘Feuilles mortes’ shows this remarkable pianist at his best, with all of his unfaltering control of texture and sonority, but elsewhere too much is sacrified on the altar of refinement. DG’s sound is of demonstration quality and Roy Howat’s accompanying essay is scholarly and intriguing.