Kyoko Tabe’s soft-grained pianism melts right into Claude Debussy’s nuance-within-nuance syntax and makes itself comfy. The six Children’s Corner movements typify Tabe’s approach, from her gently prodded, burr-tipped chords in “Jimbo’s Lullaby” and China-doll delicacy in (what else) “Serenade of the Doll”, to her lightfingered and clipped “Golliwogg’s Cake Walk”. I’m also taken with a more languid and moonstruck Rêverie than usual, while Clair de Lune’s middle section nicely contrasts to its dreamy bookends. Tabe’s La Plus que Lent needs more rhythmic backbone in order for the basic waltz tempo and subtle harmonic twists to register more effectively.
Every now and then Tabe seems to hint at the Lisztian ferocity and sex appeal characterizing L’Isle joyeuse (the climactic C major chords in the piano’s extreme registers, for instance), but her playing ultimately gets an across-the-board “G” rating. Similarly, Soirée dans Grenade lacks that wiggly expressive factor that my beloved composition professor appropriately called “lavender and vaseline”. The pianist, however, manages to turn in a firmly etched and playful Jardins sous la pluie and revs up The Little Nigar’s “cakewalk” motorboard for a hot night on the town. Chaperoned, of course.
