Suite: Pour le piano (Complete)(Debussy)(in effect, a 3-movement sonata)

Debussy composed the three pieces forming the suite at different times:
The prelude was dedicated to Debussy's student Mlle Worms de Romilly, who noted that this movement "tellingly evokes the gongs and music of Java".
The second movement, a sarabande, was written several years before the other movements, dated to the winter of 1894, when it belonged to the series of Images oubliées, dedicated to Yvonne Lerolle, the daughter of Henry Lerolle. The movement has been regarded as "among the most intimate music for the keyboard", showing an affinity to Erik Satie such as his 1887 three dances called Sarabandes. Émile Vuillermoz said Debussy played it ‘with the easy simplicity of a good dancer from the sixteenth century’. Indeed, it sounds both antique and modern at the same time. Debussy said it should be "rather like an old portrait in the Louvre".
In 1901, Debussy revised the second movement He also added the Toccata, and dedicated the whole work to Yvonne Lerolle.
The suite was published in 1901 by Eugène Fromont, and it was premiered on 11 January 1902 at the Salle Érard in Paris for the Société Nationale de Musique.
Debussy composed little piano music during the 1890s and focused on opera and orchestral music instead. Pour le piano marked a turning point in his creative development, and now he turned to a prolific production of piano music.
Debussy didn’t want speed to be the ultimate goal-to him, clarity was much more important, but there also had to be music. There is a telling story of his hearing a famous pianist play it in 1917, and, when Marguerite Long asked him about the interpretation, he replied: ‘Dreadful. He didn’t miss a note.’ ‘Shouldn’t you be happy then?’ she queried. ‘Oh, not like that’, he replied!! (I would guess that Debussy thought he played clinically, like a robot: perfectly clean, but with no emotion!)
The title of the work is modest, but its importance and effect is anything but that. Many French pianists of his time commented on how important it was to approach Debussy’s piano music with the same diligence and rigour that one would apply to a Bach fugue-something that is often overlooked.
The movements are:-
1. Prélude is marked "Assez animé et très rythmé" (With spirit and very rhythmically), and in 3/4 time. (The conclusion is marked "Tempo di cadenza", with glissandos).
2. Sarabande is marked "Avec une élégance grave et lente" (With a slow and solemn elegance).
It is in 3/4 time.
3. Toccata is marked 'Vif' (lively), and in 2/4 time
(Although Debussy lived in the Impressionist Era it does not follow that all his music should be shrouded in mist where one cannot discern the framework: this is such a piece. There should be clarity of note-playing so that, when there is a change to use of pedal, there is a noticeable difference; otherwise, all becomes a homogeneous blur!! This is the case in performances where far too many pianists hold down the pedal for several beats, instead of changing on individual chords. A reviewer described the suite as "possibly foreshadowing the neo-classical Debussy that emerged in his last years").
GlynGlynn, alias GB, realiser.
Please feel free to leave any comments, be they good, bad, or indifferent as to whether the piece, or the performance, moved you in any way whatsoever!
(Since music is an aural art, and not a visual one, it is best to listen to these pieces, and other artists performances, with eyes closed, so as to be able to listen intently as to how the music is portrayed).