This series of Debussy's complete piano music is turning out to be very worthwhile. Not only has the Welsh pianist Martin Jones already proved himself to be an especially sympathetic and stylish interpreter, but, supported by the scholarship of the Debussy expert Roy Howat who has written the booklets, he is including in the survey music that others in the past have ignored.
Each of the three Debussy ballets was originally prepared in piano score. In the event, only Jeux was orchestrated by the composer—in answer to a commission from Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes. I must say that on hearing it in this version one does rather long for orchestral colour, if only to differentiate the complex wealth of rhythm and detail; as it is, the succession of one novel idea after another makes for difficult listening. Jones responds to the fantasy of the score with a light and magical touch. The dances are colourfully spontaneous. At least one does hear the music anew and the extraordinary inventiveness of Debussy's music is startling.
The progress of the ballet Khamma was rather less distinguished. Originally commissioned in 1910, Debussy produced a piano score by the middle of 1912, but it proved not to be long enough and various complications ensued. The orchestration that Debussy had begun was handed over to Charles Koechlin for completion. The plot is set in Egypt with the young girl Khamma dancing before the statue of Amun-Ra. The attraction towards antiquity, which surfaces in a number of other solo piano works, here leads Debussy to create an aura of mystery. The whole scene is suffused in moonlight and there is a general sense of foreboding. The pianist conjures up the exotic images with fine culture and it is easy for one to follow the narrative. The final dance of Khamma, after which she falls down dead, is slightly crazy and frightening.
After all this drama La boite a joujoux returns us to the concerns of the nursery. In three tableaux, the ballet is nearly half-an-hour long. It was written mainly in 1913 with Debussy's daughter Chou-Chou in mind, who had also been the inspiration of Children's Corner. One recognizes many quotations from other works, such as the latter cycle, also from diverse composers like Liszt, Mendelssohn, Chabrier and Mussorgsky. The ballet is about a toy soldier. Martin Jones skilfully avoids overcharacterizing the picturesque elements and the fleeting images of childhood come and go in a charming parade. The suite works well on the piano, chiefly because the writing is not too involved.
An interesting CD, well recorded—the piano sound is considerably closer than on some of the other volumes in the series, whilst retaining an acoustic that is suitable for the overall imaginative use of atmospheric effects.'