This confirms the favourable impression Rouvier made with his Denon CD of Debussy's Preludes, Book 2 (C37-7043, 5/84), though it has to be said that in this more varied programme he does not respond to all the nuances, some of them admittedly extra-musical, planted in the work of this most civilized of composers. Examples are the Berceuse, a sombre late piece, the deliciously ironic La plus que lente (where the accompanying booklet improves on the occasion by saing ''One theory is that it was composed as a parody'') and ''Golliwog's cakewalk'', the last movement of Children's Corner. This last has apt rhythmic elan, however, and there is more of the same in Le petit negre and, in a different style, in Danse, which is from 1890 and is not yet characteristic of the composer.
Rouvier's performances, indeed, are immaculate, presented with scrupulous care. Even if he is not always sufficiently attentive to Debussy's p and pp markings, one greatly enjoys the delicate precision of ''Serenade for the doll'' in Children's Corner, the way that ''Jimbo's lullaby'' manages to be drowsy in effect yet very clearly articulated, and the measured animation of ''Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum''. Some of the other pieces, such as Reverie, mostly are early and again not really characteristic, yet they have an appeal, and sometimes it is quite insidious. One scarcely is aware of the recording as such, which is to say that there seems to be nothing between the performer and the listener.'