Album: Pascal & Ami Roge, De-bussy: Petite Suite; Epigraphes Antiques; En Blanc Et Noir (Onyx)

This fifth volume of Pascal Rogé's complete recordings of Debussy's piano music focuses on pieces for four hands, on which he's accompanied by his wife, Ami.

The most engaging is the Petite Suite, delivered with a buoyant, rippling touch to bring out its warmth and charm. Of the six Epigraphes Antiques, Pour un Tombeau sans Nom is a sparse, quiet piece with a rumbling bass figure suggesting fate lurking beneath the distracted upper register, and Pour l'Egyptienne has a lingering semi-presence of the Cheshire Cat's smile. But the melancholy second movement of En Blanc Et Noir, Debussy's heartfelt lament for the Great War, is oppressively mournful, weighing its spirit down, alleviated only by the more spirited final section.

DOWNLOAD THIS: Petite Suite; Epigraphes Antiques; Nocturne