À CLAUDE - Benedetto Boccuzzi

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À CLAUDE - Various Composers - Benedetto Boccuzzi (Piano) - 8054726141112 - Released: March 2021 - Digressione Music DCTT111

Claude Debussy:
- Cloches à travers les feuilles
- Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut
- Poissons d'or
Benedetto Boccuzzi: (quasi) Notturno
George Crumb: Makrokosmos I:
- Pastorale
- The Magic Circle of Infinity
- Dream Images
- Makrokosmos II:
- Rain-Death Variations
- Twin Suns
- Litany of the Galactic Bells
Olivier Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jésus:
- Regard de l'étoile
- Regard de la Vierge
- Regard des hauteurs
Diana Rotaru: Debumessquisse
Toru Takemitsu:
- Les yeux clos
- Rain tree sketch - in memoriam Olivier Messiaen
Claude Debussy: Deux Danses pour harpe et orchestre (arr. Benedetto Boccuzzi)
- Danse Sacrée
- Danse Profane

How do you like your piano music? Rigorous and highly logical like the Fugues of Bach, stern and structured like the Sonatas of Beethoven, poetic and passionate like the Nocturnes of Chopin, mystical like the Sonatas of Scriabin, or are you more in tune with the various effects, colors and impressionistic images the instrument can project. As the title of this recording and its connect-the-dots cover image suggest, all the pieces in this collection are either dedicated to, or influenced by the founding father of impressionism, Claude Debussy.

In the booklet notes, pianist and composer Benedetto Boccuzzi (b. 1990), defines this recording as "almost a family reunion, an ancestral tree that starts with Debussy and branches out through successive generations". And one could perceive the root of this tree as being the pursuit, discovery and creation of intangible and abstract imagery through free, open and unconfined expression. And what better piece encapsulates all this than Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut, played here with the deepest sense of shadowy mystique by Boccuzzi. His own (quasi) Notturno blends together sounds generated inside the piano with notes on the keyboard into an effectively remote soundscape. And no one can quite conjure up a sonic dreamscape like George Crumb. His Dream Images and Twin Suns for example could very well act as the soundtrack to anyone's personal daydreams, and again Benedetto Boccuzzi perfectly channels their nebulous atmosphere. And listening to some of Olivier Messiaen's music is like pondering the deepest theological subjects whilst living inside an aviary.

The website of Romanian composer Diana Rotaru (b. 1981) states that one of the expressive directions her music explores is hypnagogia, which is as close to a dreaming state as one can get. And Debumessquisse, with its fragmented ideas and rapid shifts from shards of light to darkness, certainly fits that profile. And as the title of Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu's Les yeux clos (eyes shut) suggests, only one's internal imagery can manifest itself. Boccuzzi closes the disc with his own highly compelling arrangements of two works by Claude Debussy originally scored for Harp and Orchestra, an instrument which summons, by its own nature, ephemeral imagery.

All in all a well-curated collection by Benedetto Boccuzzi which brings together iconic 20th century composers who collectively steered music towards a new trajectory and in doing so, redefined the role and character of the piano.

Jean-Yves Duperron - March 2021