Pour le piano - Debussy, Claude (Back/Palme)

Little is known about the origins of Debussy’s Pour le piano, only that the second movement Sarabande was written in 1894 and that the autograph carries the clear inscription »1901«.

As with the Suite bergamasque , Pour le piano was published first by Fromont in 1901, although Debussy did not grant him the full rights to the composition until 1905. This delay had most certainly to do with Debussy’s efforts to have Fromont transfer the rights to Pelléas et Mélisande to his new exclusive publisher Durand; in other words Fromont was to own Pour le piano only if Durand owned Pelléas .

Bärenreiter’s new critical scholarly edition edited by Regina Back relies on all known sources, documenting the genesis of the composition, provides a detailed Critical Commentary and enlightens with its text passages on performance practice and Debussy’s piano music.

“excellent urtext edition … this beautifully produced publication includes a detailed introduction with sections covering the genesis and publication history of ‘Pour le piano’, detailed ideas on its aesthetics and suggestions for performance practice, scholarly notes on the edition itself, a list of the sources, and translations of all Debussy‘s performing instructions … a fabulous performance edition, with crystal clear notation printed on cream paper, generously spaced…”
(Andrew Eales, pianoado.com, Juni 2018)