18 / 56
Up until then, you were listening to other students. What do you
remember about your first “physical” contact with Debussy?
P. B.
: At the time,
Ce qu’à vu le vent d’ouest
was a difficult piece for me, but once I got
past the technical aspects, I felt completely at home in this music. And six months
later, when my professor gave me the score for
Feux d’artifice
, I was so happy. My
relationship with Debussy’s music was completely natural, right from the start.
When I lookback, I recall that thiswas in the early 1970s, andpieces like
Feux d’artifice
were only 60 years old at the time. I wonder if a kid today would be as happy and as
mesmerized by music written in the 1950s. Maybe—I don’t know, I wonder…
How did Debussy then become part of your repertory?
P. B.
: I worked on the
Estampes
first, then a few
Images
, aswell as a few
Etudes
, but it
was all a bit dispersed.When I was 19, Philippe Entremont gaveme the opportunity
to participate in Debussy’s complete works for piano, performed by Michel Béroff,
him and a very young, as yet unknown pianist, me. My two colleagues took on the
majority of the work, but I did prepare a complete Debussy recital, which was an
important step in my relationship to this music.
18 DEBUSSY_PRELUDES