Massimiliano Damerini and Marco Rapetti here bring together all of Debussy’s piano duets, including all original works, plus the composer’s own four-hand and two-piano transcriptions of orchestral works. Only one arrangement, so far as I can tell, is not quite 100 percent Debussy. Although the composer did transcribe Printemps for piano duet and chorus, the recording actually corresponds to Henri Busser’s duet setting minus singers, an arrangement made under Debussy’s supervision. If only the performances were more consistent and the sound quality less problematic.
Loud climaxes take on an uncomfortably close-up and metallic hue that hardly suggests Debussy’s oft-cited “piano without hammers” tonal paradigm. This is a pity, because the team’s expansive, expertly synchronized rubatos and sophisticated pedaling might create a more alluring atmosphere in the concert hall, such as in La Mer’s first-movement opening, the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, or the early Divertissement’s playful middle section. And compared to the Kontarsky brothers’ stunning precision and elegance, Damerini and Rapetti’s emphatic phrasing in pieces like Pour que la nuit soit propice (Six épigraphes antiques) and En bateau (Petite suite) comes off sounding relatively stiff and heavy-handed. By contrast, the third movement of En blanc et noir and the early Lindaraja reveal the duo at its most supple and animated, albeit with loudly audible intakes of breath and other noises. An uneven release.
