Begun in 1894 and finished in 1901, Pour le piano was Debussyâs first major work for solo piano to be published.
For one contemporary critic the suite had âthe force of a programme, if not a manifestoâ. Another wrote that it was a work dedicated ânot to instrumentalists but to the instrument itself."
In Pour le piano Debussy certainly manifests a new and confident command of the keyboard. The preludeâs orchestral colours, fortissimo chords and glissandos are truly electrifying. A dreamy and intimate Sarabande, a revision of the Sarabande from Images Oubliées (1894), brings welcome contrast before the energetic and graceful Toccata concludes the work.
