Studio Masters

Jacopo Salvatori – Debussy: Préludes, Books 1 & 2 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:31:23 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © OnClassical

Written between 1909 and 1913, Préludes are probably Claude Debussy’s most important work for piano. It consists in a series of 24 short pieces, equally subdivided into two books.

Unlike Chopin’s, Bach’s and many other composer’s homonymous series, these pieces aren’t sorted by key signature. Debussy gave a title to all of the 24 preludes and decided to place them at the end of each piece. This choice is mainly addressed to the performer to encourage him to find his own interpretation but it also points out that it’s the music here that will suggest the titles and not vice versa. Being certainly the peak of maturity in Debussy’s musical experience, these pieces also carry the youthful energy of the author’s early pieces. This combination of both aspects of Debussy’s personal style gives this music an unique feature: here, music and dramaturgy express and support each other mutually, letting each idea unfold and develop achieving a brilliant balance between its strong inspiration sources and Debussy’s consumate mastery of composing. Such quality is rarely to find in the repertoire of concert music, making Préludes a milestone for musicians of all sorts.
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Jacopo Salvatori – Debussy: Piano Works, Vol. 5 – 6 Épigraphes antiques & La boîte à joujoux (Version for Piano) (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 53:07 minutes | 798 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © OnClassical

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Jacopo Salvatori – Debussy: Piano Works, Vol. 4 – Préludes, Books 1 & 2 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:31:15 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © OnClassical

Written between 1909 and 1913, Préludes are probably Claude Debussy’s most important work for piano. It consists in a series of 24 short pieces, equally subdivided into two books.
Unlike Chopin’s, Bach’s and many other composer’s homonymous series, these pieces aren’t sorted by key signature. Debussy gave a title to all of the 24 preludes and decided to place them at the end of each piece. This choice is mainly addressed to the performer to encourage him to find his own interpretation but it also points out that it’s the music here that will suggest the titles and not vice versa. Being certainly the peak of maturity in Debussy’s musical experience, these pieces also carry the youthful energy of the author’s early pieces. This combination of both aspects of Debussy’s personal style gives this music an unique feature: here, music and dramaturgy express and support each other mutually, letting each idea unfold and develop achieving a brilliant balance between its strong inspiration sources and Debussy’s consumate mastery of composing. Such quality is rarely to find in the repertoire of concert music, making Préludes a milestone for musicians of all sorts.
(more…)

Jacopo Salvatori – Debussy: Piano Works, Vol. 3 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:14:54 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © OnClassical

This album contains a number of short pieces, most of which were written by the author during the first years of his career.

Debussy’s way of writing for piano at this early stage is less articulated yet it contains a certain degree of complexity in his inner structures which indicates how the author had already taken his own path. The choice of subject for his pieces as well as the way he presents his ideas also show a stronger connection with the traditional repertoire: the most interesting example here is the suite ‘Images Oubliées’, literally a first version of ‘Pour le piano’, where he sketched ideas, which will later appear in his most important works, using and combining them in a less brilliant way. As an example, in the first movement one can clearly hear similarities to ‘Jardins sous la pluje’ and the first piece of ‘Pour le piano’.

The structure of a three pieces suite with an ‘animato’ first movement, a sarabanda-like slow piece and a fast ending movement appears here for the first time; it will later develop into ‘Estampes’ and ‘Images’. It is interesting to notice that the second movement here is the same piece as in ‘Pour le piano’ but with some slight harmonic differences.

Among these early pieces there are some other short works, written in the style of his latter pieces, which for various reasons did not fit into the two series of ‘Préludes’, but which are nevertheless interesting pieces of music.
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Jacopo Salvatori – Debussy: Piano Works, Vol. 2 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 58:37 minutes | 898 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © OnClassical

Pour le piano (1901), Estampes (1903) and Masques (1904) belong to the period preceding that of the composer’s piano masterpieces, such as Images and Préludes, written between 1904 and 1913. Nevertheless they mark a fundamental stage in the composer’s development, in which he brings together his experience stemming from the early pieces with a more concise and strengthened sense of form. There is an inimitable quality to this music in the clarity of its moods, such as the Spanish atmosphere in La soirée dans Grenade or the asian sonorities in Pagodes, provided by its extensive use of pentatonic scales. His writing for piano equals that of the following masterpieces and was in itself innovative and pioneering.
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Jacopo Salvatori – Debussy: Piano Works, Vol. 1 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:01:03 minutes | 848 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © OnClassical

Along with Maurice Ravel, Achille-Claude Debussy was one of the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions.

“Suite bergamasque” (1890) recalls rococo decorousness with a modern cynicism and puzzlement. This suite contains one of Debussy’s most popular pieces, “Clair de Lune”.
His first volume of “Images pour piano” (1904–1905) combines harmonic innovation with poetic suggestion: “Reflets dans l’eau” is a musical description of rippling water; “Hommage à Rameau”, the second piece, is slow and yearningly nostalgic. It takes as its inspiration a melody from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Castor et Pollux” (1737). The third piece is very fast and vibrating.

The album also contains the II set of Images as well as “L’isle joyeuse” a difficult, virtuoso piece. The Florentine pianist Jacopo Salvatori reveals a profound poetic sense and a proper timbre research. This album is recorded on a Fazioli grand piano.
The sound is veiled and highly dynamic (“Clair de Lune” is even DR 19!).
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