Those Other French Impressionists

This month's free cover disk offering from BBC Music magazine is a fine recital by pianist Artur Pizarro of, as the title has it, Debussy and Ravel piano masterpieces. It is certainly full of wonderful music, whether every piece on it is really a masterpiece is perhaps open to question with some of the Debussy being lesser known and relatively recently rediscovered works. They are none the less interesting for that however. The Ravel works are more well known and established within the repertoire. There is the Sonatine, Pavane pour une infante defunte and the beautiful Forlane movement from Le Tombeau de Couperin. Pizarro is very much at home in this repertoire and the performances are of a very high quality. Many of the Debussy pieces are now seen as a link between his early more romantically inclined pieces and the more revolutionary impressionist style with which he is most commonly associated. As a general rule, these BBC Music freebies tend to be more treasurable when they feature chamber works or solo instrumental recitals than when they recycle performances by the BBC orchestras, though several of those fill in gaps in one's collection.