Debussy

Following two fine recordings of Chopin, the 2015 Chopin Competition winner Seong-Jin Cho ushers in a Debussy centennial (he died in 1918) with this beautifully judged album. The two books of Images are done with great style and a ravishing feel for their colour and texture—he really brings out the different Impressionist moods of each of the six movements. He plays Children’s Corner with wit and a fine feeling for the piece’s visual prompts, while the Suite bergamasque is handled with enormous sensitivity (“Clair de lune” is gorgeous). “L’isle joyeuse”, almost a pendant to the Suite bergamasque, is an imaginative finale.