On a superficial level, you can understand why BIS selected Noriko Ogawa to launch the label’s Debussy piano music cycle. Her sonority has the kind of translucence and delicacy we might easily liken to the composer’s own “piano without hammers” ideal. Furthermore, Ogawa’s easygoing, yielding approach to Debussy’s more introspective pieces (“Hommage à Rameau” from Images Book I, “Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fût” from Images Book II, the first of the Images Oubliées, and “Pagodes” from the Estampes suite) makes for soothing, comfortable listening. Further examination, though, reveals less-than-seamless cascading arpeggios in “Reflets dans l’eau”, where the pianist resorts to security ritards in order to get the notes right. The rest falls into predictable patterns of accentuation. “Poissons d’or” lacks the sense of play and friskiness I cherish in Rubinstein and Michelangeli’s recordings, although Ogawa contours the vertiginous patterns of “Mouvement” in a way that manages to be clear without being notey. She paints “Jardins sous la pluie” in broad brush strokes, pedaling more than is necessary, and slighting what Pierre Monteux used to call “zee leetle notes”, underarticulating them or sometimes leaving them out (or so it seems). Ogawa does not sufficiently differentiate the foreground and background textures in L’isle joyeuse, and consequently the music fails to scintillate (for a truly coruscating L’isle joyeuse, try Vladimir Horowitz’s 1966 live version on Sony). Hopefully future BIS Debussy volumes will bounce back from this hit-and-miss start.
