I really like Reflections In The Water from the first Images Book. Honestly, It’s so calming to listen to, especially if done correctly. The harmonic dissonance provides an interesting tone to the piece but isn’t overwhelmingly dissonant.
A few preludes, etudes, images, cyrinx, jeux, Nuages, khamma, beau soir, les angelus and L'isle Joyeuse. From previous videos I've realized I spam a thousand pieces just to be specific, and also miss out on a lot of things knowingly or unknowingly, so I will just keep it consise this way now onwards lmao
Debussy once said that his etudes were a warning to pianists not to take the profession unless they have remarkable hands. Just one listen to these etudes, and you can certainly see what Debussy meant.
Debussy! The composer that got me into piano performance. Instantly approachable and harmonically fascinating at the same time. Would love to see you make a Ravel video. IMO Ravel perfected the impressionistic stylings set forth by Debussy. Edit: I've listened to a lot more music and music history since I made this comment; each composer has their own unique voice and (seeing as they were contemporaries) did so largely without major influence from one another. I do still think Ravel's music is perfect though.
I don't think Ravel perfected what Debussy did, since they where approaching a different stylistic end. Debussy was more hermetic and symbolist than Ravel, and from 1911 onwards, Debussy refined his style beyond music.
I don’t know that I’d agree with that last statement! I’m a huge “impressionist” nerd, and I know the big four of Impressionism (Debussy, Ravel, Koechlin, and Boulanger, and I’ll add Respighi as an honorable mention because he’s not French!) pretty well, and I’d say that Debussy perfected his own style pretty well (and I say that even though Ravel is my favorite, by far!). But if you’re talking about extending the style, Koechlin is the most likely candidate for that. All four have their own idioms, and it’s pretty easy to distinguish between them even if you haven’t heard the pieces before, but Koechlin seems to have most directly extended the impressionist techniques from Debussy. Ravel had a major obsession with utter perfection, being a collector of machines and a meticulous composer, and a love of the childlike and wondrous; and Boulanger had her lifelong illness, a devout Catholicism, and a lot of emotion to get out in her short life, so they are both just very different from Debussy in their goals. Koechlin, for all his excellent counterpoint, had a similar goal of expressing images, scenes with music, so they just seem to match up well. But Koechlin could never be accused of being a Debussy knock off-he applied Baroque techniques of counterpoint to the harmonic language of Impressionism and developed a style entirely his own, extending Debussy’s “principles” far beyond their limits. But to my ears, Koechlin and Debussy sound the most directly related of the group. Just an opinion… that I wrote two paragraphs on. Sorry 😅
@@andrewfortmusic thank you for the two paragraphs! sounds like there's a lot more to these composers than first meets the eye. I think I'll do some more reading, this is fascinating.
Poissons d'Or is a nasty little piece of music! It has some fiendishly difficult tremolos, polyrhythms, and arpeggios, and it has a very unusual structure. It's so good
I know that people typically regard Pierre-Laurent Aimard as one of the greatest interpreters of Ligeti and Messiaen, but I find his recordings of the Debussy etudes and Images just as convincing, if not better than those in your videos. I´m curious as to what you think
For me in first for me Debussy is no easy to understand , so Debussy wrote in french " dans mon Audience une Personne sur mille comprends ma musique " it's not words of me but words or Debussy .
It was said that Monet had the best eyes in art-that he captured the atmospheric tremblings of the moment. I think the same can be said about Debussy's ears.
@@ryzikx his rankings are already beyond my expectations and he doesn't need to care about my expectations (because at least he does the rank-assignment job, which I'm not fit to do.)
I think another honorable mention, if not on the list itself, is the Minuet from the Suite Bergamasque. It's deceptive... it doesn't sound like much just listening to it, but it's a finger twister that requires a lot of dexterity and finger independence. Very challenging to execute. That was much more of a struggle for me than L'isle joyeuse.
Very interesting list Caleb! For me, it's most interesting that you included ballet transcriptions here...a surprisingly large amount of Debussy scholarship (not to mention Debussy piano recordings!) tend to ignore the ballet transcriptions--I'm assuming Debussy himself did the transcriptions? My only quibble with this list is that you have ranked some of the complete sets (Preludes, Images, Etudes) of pieces instead of individual pieces, which can be a bit misleading--for example, Preludes Book 1 is ranked 6th even though it does contain some pieces that are far easier than L'isle Joyeuse or any of the Images (in fact, some of Debussy's easiest piano pieces are in the Book 1). Overall a wonderful compilation! Thank you for another great video.
yes, Debussy transcribed the Ballets himself. in fact, from what i've read and based on IMSLP Debussy never actually gotten to orchestrate Khamma-the piano solo version seems to be the only version that Debussy ever penned to completion. on the grouping of sets, i do somewhat agree that in can be a bit misleading in terms of difficulty (although im sure that most people will agree that L'isle Joyeuse is more difficult than say, Danseuses de Delphes). butttt at the same time you may have noticed that the focus of the video is, despite the title, to showcase great Debussy recordings (and occasionally lesser known works by the composer featured, like the aforementioned Debussy Ballet Transcriptions), and so by grouping the works where possible there's more opportunity to include more of said recordings and works!
Thanks for the comment. I would say that L'isle de Joyeuse is harder than most of the individual preludes, but because the preludes are often played together as books, they are harder to perform that way.
@@GICM Another “impressionist” composer named Charles Koechlin orchestrated Khamma if you’re interested in listening! It’s an absolutely fascinating study, and a lovely listen. I’d thought about orchestrating it myself until I heard Koechlin’s version!
I always thought that L'isle Joyeuse was Debussy's most difficult piece for piano. "Pour les accords" is a BEAR to learn, but it's such fun to play once one has it down! When I went down to the Texas Gulf Coast to watch Hurricane Claudette come ashore as a borderline category 1/2 hurricane, one of the pieces I listened to was "Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest". It works. (The trick is to get close enough to experience the eye of the storm without being in an area subject to storm surge, and there are few trees or houses in that area so one can avoid debris damage.)
@@fryderyckchopin484 play all the preludes then start the etudes. I’d also recommend playing some Gabriel Dupont, Francesco Cilea, and ofc Ravel for other impressionist works. Dupont’s Les hueres dolentes sounds a lot like Debussy
@@user-vp1fy8rq6s in fact I love Cilea, but I never find the scores for his music, but I'll take notes of that. Btw is impressive to me that the etudes are the next step after the preludes, some of them seem hard as hell
Can you do Schmitt and Samazeuilh as well? Maybe just Samazeuilh as the hardest pieces from the œuvre if Schmitt (and Ravel, though I haven't mentioned previously) are predictable.
Yeah lol Ombres just blows everything else Schmitt wrote for piano out of the water, closely followed by Mirages or Crepuscules. Problem is there aren’t many recordings to choose from because Schmitt isn’t standard repertoire. I think the same goes for Kapustin although the latter is becoming significatnly more popular so maybe a video on him is possible. Haven’t heard of Samazzhuilh, any pieces in particular you recommend?
@@ilikeplayingffftonecluster851 P.R. would've helped you more if they'd had the common courtesy to spell the man's name correctly. It's Gustave Samazeuilh.
This music is so unique. It's so different sounded in the sense of the absence of melodic chords and structures and instead are very irregular sounds. These pieces in this video also remind me of alot of the notes and chords in Stravinsky The Firebird. And there's also a whole set of shorter similar sounding pieces called The Birds, that I remember, also all with those unique irregular chords
40. Scriabin Piano Concerto Op. 20 (8) 39. Scriabin Piano Sonata No. 10 Op. 70 (8) 38. Schumann Fantasie Op. 17 (8) 37. Schumann Symphonic Études Op. 13 (8) 36. Schumann Toccata Op. 7 (8) 35. Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 1 (8) 34. Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 4 Op. 40 (8) 33. Debussy Transcription (only original version) of Ballet "Khamma" L. 125 (8) 32. Beethoven Variations on a Theme of Diabelli Op. 120 (8) 31. Schumann Kreisleriana Op. 16 (8) 30. Schumann Davidsbündlertänze Op. 6 (8) 29. Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 15 (8) 28. Brahms Piano Sonata No. 3 Op. 5 (8) 27. Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 28 Op. 101 (8) 26. Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 32 Op. 111 (8) 25. Liszt Transcendental Étude S. 139 No. 5 "Feux Follets" (8+) 24. Debussy Etudes Book I L. 136 (8+) 23. Debussy Transcription of Ballet "Jeux" L. 126 (8+) 22. Debussy Etudes Book II L. 136 (8+) 21. Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata No. 1 Op. 28 (8+) 20. Rachmaninoff Variations on a Theme of Chopin Op. 22 (8+) 19. Scriabin Piano Sonata No. 6 Op. 62 (8+) 18. Scriabin Piano Sonata No. 7 Op. 64 "White Mass" (8+) 17. Brahms Variations on a Theme of Handel Op. 24 (8+) 16. Liszt Réminiscences de Don Juan S. 418 (8++) 15. Liszt Grande fantaisie de bravoure sur La clochette S. 420 (8++) 14. Liszt Réminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia S. 400 (8++) 13. Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata No. 2 Op. 36 1st (1913) version (8++) 12. Scriabin Piano Sonata No. 8 Op. 66 (8++) 11. Scriabin Piano Sonata No. 5 Op. 53 (8++) 10. Liszt Beethoven Symphony No. 7 (Op. 92) Transcription S. 464 (8++) 9. Liszt Étude d'exécution transcendante d'apres Paganini S. 140 No. 4b (8++) 8. Liszt Große Konzertfantasie über Spanische Weisen S. 253 (8++) 7. Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 Op. 30 (8++) 6. Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 83 (8++) 5. Brahms Variations on a Theme of Paganini Op. 35 (8++) 4. Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 29 Op. 106 "Hammerklavier" (8++) 3. Liszt Beethoven Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" (Op. 55) Transcription S. 464 (8++) 2. Liszt Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique (Op. 14) Transcription S. 470 (9) 1. Liszt Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Op. 125) "Choral/Ode to Joy" Transcription S. 464 (9) (note for anyone curious: if you wanna know more about the rating system, Caleb has a pretty in depth explanation of it in his channel 'About' page)
@@GICM I still think that Hammerklavier is easier than Rach Sonata No.2 in my opinion (without offence please), and I would rate Balakirev Islamey on top 25 tho (with 8+)
I would definitely say that images ii and lisle joyeuse are more challenging than images I both technically and musically. I might also put preludes I lower.
Personally i feel like l’isle joyeuse is much harder than images book 2 no 2, in fact I think all of images is easier except for mouvement maybe (at least from my experience)
The rating is for the entire set combined. L'isle Joyeuse is harder in terms of technique, but it would definitely be more of a challenge to learn the entire Images due to length and musical difficulty
@@calebhu6383 oh ok that makes sense, yeah then I guess the rating is pretty fair, though at this point I can play all of images more or less, while l’isle joyeuse is still quite a bit out of reach technique-wise (but it took me much less time to memorise l’isle joyeuse than images).
@@calebhu6383 well it does make it so that you can't skip to the end of the video if anyone wants to see the no. 1, so helps with the suspense i guess, if you ever need it
really cool that we get a healthy mix of original works and transcriptions (of original works, i guess) in this one. not sure why you seperated the large works into their two books tho (the etudes perhaps especially, since i think in all the previous lists you only included the hardest ones)
Debussy: chOPiN iS THE GrEAteSt oF tHem aLL, foR thROugH tHe PiANO aLOnE hE discOverEd evERYthiNG also Debussy: takes techniques from Liszt, probably took some of his inspiration from Liszt, even has a couple works pretty much quoting Liszt
@@nasirferguson4098 well have you looked into _Liszt's_ influence on Debussy? because even if it's less than Chopin's influence it certainly still substantial, and Chopin definitely can't be said to have "discovered everything" (just compare Liszt's Sposalizio from the 2nd year of Annees de Pelerinage and Debussy's 1st Arabesque)
@@GICM this reply is criticism. I just expressed my feelings towards his overall composition. If I have to study hard to play a difficult composition I prefer to do that for something that for my perception is beautiful and I like it. I don't see how to express a personal feeling has to do with out of place criticism. It seems rather that you don't like that no everyone loves Debussy. For example Chopin too composed very difficult pieces, but many of them I love deeply
@@verymozart i think you misunderstood my comment. there's nothing wrong with criticizing Debussy; i myself have some fair share of criticisms, but beauty of all things? it's probably one of the biggest reasons why he's so loved, it's the reason why pieces like Clair de Lune, Reflets dans L'eau, Reverie, La Mer, etc. etc. are so popular. if anything it would've made more sense if you just don't like it when he strays more into atonality, but generally i think it's safe to say that Debussy is very pretty.
