Eliane Rodrigues - Debussy: Reflets (2018) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

With two critically-lauded releases on Navona Records (NOTTURNO, performing works by Chopin, and a four-album set, BEETHOVEN – 8 CONCERTI) pianist Eliane Rodrigues returns with REFLETS showcasing the pianist’s nuanced and thoughtful performances of fifteen works by Claude Debussy.

While it might seem that child prodigies are commonplace in the world of classical music, only a few truly make a lasting impact, one that lives on long after those prodigies have passed well into their adulthoods. Mozart began to play piano at the age of three, Beethoven did so at seven and a half, and Georges Bizet did so before his tenth birthday. Pianist Eliane Rodrigues, who began composing at three, played her first recital at five and first performed with an orchestra when she was just six years of age, can certainly be counted among those prodigious musicians, as evidenced on her latest recording, REFLETS.

The album opens with “Suite Bergamasque,” one of Debussy’s most well-known piano suites. The dynamic contrasts in the moods of the suite’s four pieces are well suited to Rodrigues’ sensitive and vivid style. Debussy is credited as one of the ‘founders’ of Impressionist music, distinguished by its focus on suggestions and atmosphere, a world that Rodrigues also inhabits here, as evidenced by her cascading and powerfully textured performance of Debussy’s “Ballade.” “Pour le Piano,” certainly one of the composer’s most moving works for solo piano, features rapid, brilliant passages that fully emphasize the pianist’s virtuosity.

That impressionistic ability to invoke a mood or a feeling carries on with “First Arabesque in E Major,” one of a pair composed early in Debussy’s career. “Images,” comprised of two ‘books’ of three pieces each, ranging from the subdued “Homage à Rameau” to the energy of “Mouvement,” marked by the torrent of notes in its finale.

Eliane Rodrigues was born in Rio de Janiero, where the performances that she gave in her childhood bore fruit when she was awarded the Gina Bachauer prize at the Van Cliburn Competition in the United States at only 18 years of age. She has gone on to perform internationally, as well as to hold the position of professor at the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp. She has also recorded more than 25 CDs, recorded both live and in the studio; REFLETS on which Rodrigues plays a Fazioli Concert Grand F728, was recorded in Belgium at Academy One Studios.

"In each of the Nocturnes, she plunges into their collective heart traversing their boundless emotional range with an aristocratic imperiousness that sets her interpretations apart from almost anyone else’s." (Raul de Gama, World Music Report, NOTTURNO)

Tracklist:
01. Suite bergamasque, L. 75: I. Prélude
02. Suite bergamasque, L. 75: II. Menuet
03. Suite bergamasque, L. 75: III. Clair de lune
04. Suite bergamasque, L. 75: IV. Passepied
05. Ballade, L. 70
06. Pour le piano, L. 95: I. Prélude
07. Pour le piano, L. 95: II. Sarabande
08. Pour le piano, L. 95: III. Toccata
09. 2 Arabesques, L. 66: No. 1 in E Major
10. Images, Book 1, L. 110: No. 1, Reflets dans l’eau
11. Images, Book 1, L. 110: No. 2, Hommage à Rameau
12. Images, Book 1, L. 110: No. 3, Mouvement
13. Images, Book 2, L. 111: No. 1, Cloches à travers les feuilles
14. Images, Book 2, L. 111: No. 2, Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut
15. Images, Book 2, L. 111: No. 3, Poissons d’or
16. Children’s Corner, L. 113: I. Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum
17. Children’s Corner, L. 113: II. Jimbo’s Lullaby
18. Children’s Corner, L. 113: III. Serenade for a Doll
19. Children’s Corner, L. 113: IV. The Snow Is Dancing
20. Children’s Corner, L. 113: V. The Little Shepherd
21. Children’s Corner, L. 113: VI. Golliwogg’s Cake-Walk

Personnel:
Eliane Rodrigues, piano