Robert Greenberg

Historian, Composer, Pianist, Speaker, Author

Dr. Bob Prescribes: Debussy’s Preludes

Last week, Patreon Patron Renato inquired:

“So, what is Dr. Bob’s prescription for Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major D960 (I listen to Richter’s in Praga 1972) and for Debussy’s Prelude Book I (Michelangeli DG is my choice)? Thanks a lot. Cheers.”

As we observed last week, both of these works are featured in my Great Courses survey “The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works.” I dedicated last week’s “Dr. Bob Prescribes” to the Schubert Sonata; let’s now tackle the Debussy Préludes.

An even cursory glance at the recordings currently available reveals a lot of highly regarded performances. Thus, a disclaimer: I am not a “collector” of performances (of cocktail shakers, yes, but that’s a conversation for another time). As a non-collector, I tend to stop buying recordings of a given work once I’ve found a satisfactory performance (or two, as in the case of Debussy’s Préludes). So in the end, I can only recommend to you those recordings I’ve been happy with over the years.

See the prescription on atreon