Debussy: Violin Sonata - Cello Sonata - Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp

Another go at the late Debussy sonatas. I ordered a disc with the Violin Sonata played by Kyung Wha Chung and Radu Lupu, both in their prime in the late seventies. It's a very accomplished recording but does not unsettle the Ferschtman (and live Ibragimova) versions I have been listening too earlier. Certainly good to have.

The book Debussy: The Quiet Revolutionary by Victor Lederer, in the Unlocking the Masters series) contains a CD that includes a recording of the Cello Sonata played by Mischa Maisky and Martha Argerich (a live recording previously released on DGG). It's not a convincing reading: too self-conscious and pompous in a way. I'd rather have the lean, somewhat understated classicism that speaks from the Rossler/Würtz recording on Brilliant.

Finally, the Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp which is the most elusive part of this valedictory tryptich. It's a strange, very fin de siècle ensemble of rather diffident instruments. And it also sounds that way: sensual, tentative, ostentatiously unvirtuosic. But to my ears it also comes across as short-breathed and confused. I am not sure what to make of it. Debussy himself referred to it as sprung from a very bleak mood but the music shows a remarkable equanimity. Lederer in his book is very laudatory about the work, placing it a notch above the violin sonata. That's quite a mystery to me as it is the violin sonata that comes across as a towering achievement.