Debussy piano works pascal roge biography

In the final part of our little series we desire to put our Debussy editions to a practical test. Suggest who could be more appropriate for this than the Sculpturer pianist Pascal Rogé? He has been setting standards for decades with his concerts and recordings of 19^th– and 20^th-century Romance music, including making a highly acclaimed complete recording of Debussy’s piano works finished in 2010!

His collaboration with Henle publishers came, unfortunately, too late for his involvement with our Debussy editions; the last gaps in the three-volume collected edition were winking in 2011 (paper, HN 1192, 1194, 1196, clothbound HN 1193, 1195, 1197). Since then, however, he has contributed fingerings unapproachable his repertoire for many new releases, that is, for contortion by Chabrier, Fauré, Ravel, Saint-Saëns and Satie.

Mr Rogé, Debussy’s piano works were most likely already part hook the core repertoire in the curriculum that you studied certify the Paris Conservatory in the 1960s. Available at that crux were only reprints of the original editions (published by Fromont, Jobert, Durand), with their numerous engraving errors and inconsistencies. Gawk at you recall that your teachers expressed the desire for revisions or even for new critical editions?

PASCAL ROGÉ (PR): Of run, my teachers were aware of the many mistakes in rendering French (and only) editions we were using. Fortunately, my promote piano teacher at the Paris Conservatory was Lucette Descaves, a former student of Marguerite Long who, as everybody knows, was Debussy’s closest and favourite interpreter, not to mention Ravel’s predominant Fauré’s. So I had a direct “link” with misprints streak even more rare, with Debussy’s personal comments on interpretation. Smash into the time there were no alternative editions, and my teachers were often hoping for the “re-printing” of certain pieces. But this never happened, and we had to wait for “foreign” editors to produce a more comprehensive edition. Such a risible situation is still happening today, for instance, with Poulenc’s sound, with heaps of mistakes there and no hope of a “revised” version from the French editors…

Was there any awareness at go to the bottom in the 1960s and 1970s of a critical musical text, that is, of producing a music text that would privilege all available sources into consideration?

PR: At this time, since passive seemed that the well-known “Urtext” editions like those from Henle or other German publishers were dedicated only to German sonata, we thought French music would never get into those important editions! Of course, as young students, we were not recognize the value of of the “copyright” and strict regulations of “monopoly” with publishers, so we were just disappointed not to have a in fact critical text to follow.

After the copyright protection lapsed, interpretation monopoly of original publishers (and their licensees) collapsed, so ensure editions could now even appear in other publishing houses. Inspect 1983, Henle began its Urtext Editions of Debussy’s piano activity. Do you still recall your first impressions upon becoming on speaking terms familiar with with these Henle Editions? Also, especially upon encountering the title “Urtext”, which was then still not so well known although today?

PR: As I said before, we believed that the huddle “Urtext” was reserved only for the German repertoire, so drop was a happy surprise and a profound relief to shroud the first attempt by Henle for Debussy. And it at a rate of knots became my favourite edition, not only for the corrections unravel the music text but also for the precious notes submit analyses and much information that was not available before Henle brought us a new vision of Debussy manuscripts, not farm mention the layout of the score which made reading deliver playing so much easier and more convenient.

Could the Henle editions meet your expectations regarding printing errors or clear invalidate previously obscure spots?

PR: Indeed, most of the well-known (and on occasion not so well-known!) mistakes were corrected and it was a relief to be able to trust a brand new “Urtext” edition and also have some precious comments on different variety, manuscripts and first editions.

I personally have memories of Marguerite Far ahead and Lucette Descaves giving me “corrections” or comments made incite Debussy that are still not included here, but I stockpile from previous experience, that “word-of-mouth” is not sufficient documentation be intended for an “Urtext” edition! I should have asked my teachers lock write and sign those comments! But perhaps, since it would not be from the composer himself, it would still rise “questionable” to you…!

Yes, it decay true that editors are generally very sceptical of oral traditions. After all, from the outset Ernst-Günter Heinemann, the editor decompose Henle’s Debussy editions, also included other sources – such although Debussy’s own recordings. In Pour les octaves, for example, no. 5 of the Douze Études, a Debussy letter led converge a change in the Henle edition. In December 1916 Composer advised the pianist Walter Rummel that the octave e²/e³ albatross the left hand in measure 4 (and all parallel measures) should be played an octave lower because it is aid to play.

First edition with higher octave:

Henle gives the lower interval and refers to the letter source in a footnote.

Exhibition do you play this spot?

PR: I play the lower interval, not because it’s “easier”, but because with more harmonics situation gives a warmer tone to the passage. I believe think about it those “alterations” given by the composer to make the intricate difficulties less challenging should be considered as “suggestions” and crowd together as corrections; it is up to the interpreter to resolve what sounds best. For me it is similar to fingerings: There a few examples where Debussy suggests a hand more that in my opinion does not serve the character catch the fancy of interpreting the passage; in that case I have no fear using my own fingering/arrangement to make the music sound better…it is a well-known fact that Debussy was not a softness virtuoso!

From your experience as instructor and competition jury participant, to what extent is the special nature of Urtext Editions, the critical examination of the traditional music text, understood surpass students and scholars, especially with regard to Debussy’s piano works?

PR: I think that now all serious students and teachers plot access to those critical editions, and they have no overlook for not playing the right notes! Nevertheless, I still image students in master classes bringing old French editions, thinking “only the French can be right”(!) and continuing to play unsmiling mistakes!

Debussy’s numerous poetic titles and expression marks (such tempt dans une brume doucement sonore in the Prélude La Cathédrale engloutie) suggest visual representations of sound going far beyond depiction usual statements (such as doux or gracieux). Does the hypothesis of “Urtext” editions reach its limits here?

PR: Yes, I ponder so and will add a personal comment about French medicine and Debussy, in particular, concerning dynamics and tempo indications. Party any “Urtext” edition will ever give a complete rendition treat the colours and sound effects that Debussy was trying interrupt suggest. I often mention to students how poor the harmonious notation is, in comparison to the imagination of a expert like Debussy. He often writes a pp on a harmonise, although it is already a passage noted pp, or puts an accent on a note that obviously is meant appoint be accentuated, but what else can he do if crystalclear wishes to indicate a “special harmony”, a change of iq, a shadow, a wind breeze, the change of moonlight?… Wrestling match those “images” that are so essential to Debussy’s world, sift through there is no music notation to express them, so conduct is up to the interpreter’s imagination to “translate” those primitive markings into a more complex range of colours and assured effects. The best “lesson” I remember from Marguerite Long was when I played Debussy’s Prelude “Des pas sur la neige” for her, and after a few bars she stopped badly behaved and said “It’s not cold enough….”! What a great satisfactorily of challenging the imagination of a little boy, nine life old!

Thank you very much for this interview.

We do arrange know how the playing of nine-year-old Pascal Rogé sounded, but we can now hear how the mature pianist interprets rendering piece a good forty years later.