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Debussy's Preludes on an 1873 Pleyel · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Dissler, and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings.
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  I first heard about the pianist Hiroko Sasaki from my late friend and colleague Harris Goldsmith,
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  who wrote a rave review about her wild recital hall debut at Carnegie Hall.
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  In that review, he wrote, she is a most distinctive musician who knows how to fuse classical
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  understatement with a more romantic freedom.
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  Sometime around 14 or 15 years ago, Hiroko Sasaki discovered a piano built by the Playell
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  Company in 1873, and this instrument had been painstakingly restored by Clavier House in
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  New York City.
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  It's an instrument that does not have the huge dynamic range of a modern concert grand,
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  nor the rich and resonant bass notes that you would get on modern grands.
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  Yet it has a seemingly infinite capacity for nuance and tone color and degrees of touch.
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  Anyway, Hiroko Sasaki fell in love with this instrument.
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  I mean, can you blame her?
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  And she used it for her recordings of the Debussy Preludes, Books 1 and 2, recorded
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  in 2010 and released on the Piano Classics label.
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  I've posted several links where you can listen to these really remarkable interpretations.
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  I only just got hold of this disc and just started to get to know it, and I am so impressed.
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  What stands out for me is the freedom that Hiroko Sasaki brings to these frequently recorded
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  pieces.
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  She tends toward faster tempos than common, yet she never sounds hectic nor rushed.
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  For example, in the first prelude in Book 1, Danse de Delphes, her basic pulse is quite
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  flexible and she often breaks her hands, meaning that she will roll certain chords or she will
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  play the left hand slightly before the right hand.
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  But these liberties have a fluency and a sense of proportion that just draws you in and you
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  really can't stop listening.
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  And the second prelude's double notes just float off the page with no effort at all,
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  just so lightly.
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  And my goodness, what subtle gradations in tone and timbre she brings throughout that
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  famous Book 1 prelude, The Sunken Cathedral.
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  The dance of puck, which follows, goes like the proverbial wind.
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  It really has swing and swagger to it.
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  Maybe it's a little too fast, but I still enjoy it.
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  In Book 2, the first piece, Brouillard, often sounds like a big blur when other pianists
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  play it, but Hiroko Sasaki makes all of those intertwining textural levels very distinct
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  and individually characterized.
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  And the swirling passage work in Ondine and in the final prelude, Fue, d'artifice, rarely
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  have sounded so supple.
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  Also, the recorded sound is quite marvelous.
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  This production comes from the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, which is a wonderful
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  venue for piano recordings.
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  And the producer and engineer was the legendary Judith Sherman.
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  And you know, if she's the producer, you know it's going to sound great.
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  So I would say that if you wanted to hear both books of Debussy's Preludes on a period
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  instrument played with individuality and imagination and world-class engineering, you've come to
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  the right disc.
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  I heartily recommend Hiroko Sasaki on the Piano Classics label.
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  This is Jed Dissler, and thank you for tuning in to the Piano Maven podcast.
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  And thanks for your support.
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  Please tell your fellow piano lovers about this podcast.
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  And I hope to be with you next time.
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  Take good care.