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Re: Marcellus Plays Debussy, 3 Performances

Author: Gregory Smith ★2017
Date: 2012-01-21 18:13

Debussy's music is not at all vague and is written in a quite helpful manner for the performer. Indeed his music shows a composer of scrupulous and methodical craftsmanship with attention to detail regarding articulation, dynamics, and even tonal color.

The music of Debussy is not to be loosely interpreted. One must follow the composer's every printed detail, thereby allowing or freeing the overall "palette" of the musical score to blossom into an "impressionistic" sounding work (freedom through discipline once again).

The visual equivalent would be to look at a painting of Monet up close and observe the prescision and detail of every brushed stroke with the exact texture and colors that the brush strokes impart....then to step back and observe that the sum of these details create the sense of "impressionism".

The true marvel of this "contest piece" is that the technical demands are so subtly interwoven into the musical texture that the most trained of listeners fail to perceive it's great difficulty.

Debussy knew of the inner mysteries of our instrument like few others, the result of which is a rich, complex work of extraordinary depth.

True, there is much musical substance to extract from this work, but in a stylistically informed way. As a performer, one has to be informed by the history, context, and stylistic considerations of any piece, particularly as formidable a work as this one.

Musical expression carries with it a tremendous amount of responsibility to understand and to be informed by these considerations. There are many different qualities of expression - some appropriate to Debussy and others to Beethoven or Stravinsky. One can not simply express themselves merely for expression's sake...simply to provoke rather than evoke a response from an audience.

The question becomes how far and in what manner is one to consider departing from the printed part. To say that one would only play simply what was on the printed page if one strictly followed all of the instructions is silly and beside the point. Of course every competent musician uses that as their starting point - as a so-called "blueprint" from which to depart.

The QUALITY, not the QUANTITY of the expression gleaned from that "blueprint" is what distinguishes a merely competent artist form a great one.

The Debussy can evoke all kinds of emotional responses from the listening audience. But if the audience is expecting something other than a performance informed by a style appropriate to Debussy, then they (and even the performer), are bound to be left feeling short or even disappointed. One can not of course play Debussy in the style of Wagner or Scriabin and expect to serve the composer. It's unfortunate that there are those audience members expecting something else.

But "pushing modern ways" does not necessarily have to entail throwing the baby out with the bathwater when the ultimate goal is to bring the music to life in an interesting, exciting, but INFORMED manner. In that sense, context IS everything.

One doesn't necessarily have to forsake expression for the sake of fidelity to the composer. The two are not inextricably bound.

In the above sense, I find the Marcellus/Boulez/Cleveland performances to be substantially objective and consistent with the work of Debussy.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), there is not an opinion in sight in this thread about the quality of the performances posted at the top of this thread by the very same person complaining that others should do so.

Gregory Smith

Post Edited (2012-01-21 18:23)

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