If I Could Choose Only One Work By...DEBUSSY

It Would Have To Be...Preludes for Piano (Books 1 and 2)
When you think about it, Debussy was a keyboard composer first and foremost, so the choice here was inevitable. BTW, in the video I mention "Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut," which is from the Images, not the Préludes, but I was giving examples of Debussy's use of cool titles and I especially love that one, so don't give me a hard time about it!

The List So Far:
1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker

[r.l.]

For over 3 years, I fell asleep each night to Walter Gieseking's Preludes after working the midnight shift at a hospital.

[syrahlover]

After I first heard Clair de Lune in high school thirty years ago, and being blown away, I went out and got the Complete Piano Works on Phillips, and I came across the Préludes, and I'm still hearing new things whenever I listen to them. To this day they are my favourite piano works of any composer.

[OuterGalaxyLounge]

Cancrizans: "Fetch yon La Mer, celestial servant, and put it in my player!"
Servant: "Sorry, sire O Great One, but that work was destroyed."
Cancrizans: "But what idiot would have it destroyed?"
Servant: "Um ...."

[bbailey]

La Mer, which he in fact orchestrated superbly, with or without the fanfares in the last movement. It's the summit of his special idiom and sound, and has an inevitable formal sweep from start to finish with awesome inspiring power in the finale. Since albums are allowed, posterity also gets to keep (as often coupled) the Nocturnes, Iberia, maybe Faun or perhaps the late Jeux, an allusive, mysterious work in which one discovers more depth each time it's heard. But however coupled, I hear La Mer as the main thing that is Debussy.

[jg]

Absolutely, YES! When I started to study composition I was totally blown away by the preludes. They changed my ears and even my playing. Two years after (when I was about 17) there were two items that I carried everywhere in my bag: the scores of his complete preludes (which I would play or analyze whenever I felt like) and a cassette (!) containing João Gilberto's first 3 LPs (which were the most beautiful thing ever). They taught me subtlety, the beauty of the moment, and basically brought me an aesthetic conscience. Not a bit of this enchantment went away. On the contrary, I still find more and more reasons for loving all of this music so deeply.

[herrbauer]

Worth mentioning: Colin Mathew's lovely orchestrations of both books of Preludes, beautifully recorded by Mark Elder & the Hallé Orchestra.

[zdl]

Excellent choice! I'd still go for La Mer, the ultimate seascape composition, the colours of which are still stunning after multiple listens. There are even 2-piano versions (although not by him), which are like the piano preludes multiplied many times over.

[HassoBenSoba]

"...without BANGING"...absolutely. I've had a tough time finding recordings of Debussy's piano music the way I think it should sound...as you say, requiring pianists to totally re-think their way of approaching the instrument (I like Paul Jacobs in the Preludes). And that's why, difficult a decision as it is, the Preludes might just be Debussy's greatest achievement, because he created his own revolutionary world of sound within the confines of the keyboard...the accomplishment of true, pure genius (Chopin also fits this description). LR

[johnbyrd]

Wonderful selection, I adore J-Y Thibaudet’s recording on Decca!

[francoisjoubert]

My first thought was Estampes - I got to know Debussy’s piano music when I heard The Richter recording while visiting a CD shop in 2003. They played it over the loudspeakers and I asked what is was and who was playing. The man at the counter smiled and pointed at the Richter recording, laying on the counter. But it is a very short work and therefore, I also would take the preludes.

[goonbelly]

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) - Tafelmusik (1733)

Georg Philipp Telemann was a famed Hamburg based German Baroque composer who lived to the ripe old age of 86. Moreover, he is one of the most prolific composers in history, having written more than 3, 000 compositions. He was a friend to both J.S. Bach (made Telemann the godfather and namesake of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel) and Handel (appropriated several of telemann's tunes) who bought and studied his published works.

While not everything Telemann composed is of the highest inspiration, this cannot be said of his Tafelmusik (table music) published in 1733. This work was composed in three parts called productions, with each production containing an orchestral suite (aka Ouverture), a concerto for several instruments and three chamber works (a quartet, a trio & a sonata). The music throughout is all excellent. Consequently, I chose Telemann's Tafelmusik because of it's musical variety and high artistic quality.

[willduffay]

This is why it's personal choice not greatest, because my head says Pelleas but my heart either follows Dave's choice or goes with the Nocturnes. There's a passage in Fetes, after the huge build-up, where it has such a vast crunchy climax. One of the truly great moments in all music for me. (Conversely, I can never make any sense of Jeux. Seems to ramble on.)

[GG-cupg]

I’m just relieved it’s both books. Wonderful choice!

[robertdandre]

''La cathédrale engloutie'' in the orchestration of leopold stokowski...( beautiful recording on telarc by erich kunzel)...oh what a magnificent piece....! what an orchestration!...! it always reminds me of a visit at the time to lake taurus (mauricie, quebec), a lake which had formed following the construction of a hydroelectric dam and which had submerged several villages which were located near this place including some church. We could also see the top of a bell tower of one of its churches

[EgoSumAbbas]

These are great, David! You've inspired me to put together my own "If I Could Choose Only One Work" list for a few of the composers I'm listening to most right now, starting with Vaughan Williams. I may have to create a March Madness-type bracket to determine the "winner" between "Hodie, " "Five Tudor Portraits, " the Mass in G minor, and the Fifth Symphony.

[gavingriffiths]

I've always assumed the titles hark back to the tradition of 18th French harpsichord music exemplified by Couperin - and like Couperin the titles are oddly mysterious and oblique. Debussy emphazising his sense of tradition just as he seeks utmost originality..

[barryguerrero]

Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp. I love it!

[grantparsons]

Lovely choice! And so many great & distinctive recordings. The one I'm turning to most often in recent times is by the wonderful Monique Haas.

[MarauderOSU]

Not sure what I'd choose for Debussy. Probably either Images pour orchestre or La mer.

[bobflagg]

Love the Preludes especially played by Ivan Moravec (Supraphon) but for one piece it would be the String Quartet (Quartetto Italiano now Decca cds) with its rhapsodic slow movement.