Debussy: 12 Etudes

Mitsuko Uchida’s 1989 album of Debussy’s 12 Études is one of the great piano recordings of any era. The Études (1915) come from late in Debussy’s life, and employ an age-old musical genre to strike out into new technical and expressive territory. Uchida is commander of each flickering mood and mercurial inflection. “Pour les Tierces” highlights her delicate sifting of layered textures and her lightning-fast reflexes. “Pour les huit doigts” has a dizzying fluidity of finger, while “Pour les Arpèges composés” ekes barbs of humor from the fantastical note-flurries. In the concluding “Pour les Accords” Uchida combines steeliness in the percussive outer sections with a visionary stillness in the becalmed central interlude. A marvel of insight and virtuosity, this is Debussy playing for the ages.