debussy etudes

[BoliverAllmon]

Where would you rank the debussy etudes against other sets of etudes?

boliver

[liszmaninopin]

In terms of difficulty, musical quality, what?

I think very highly of them musically-and they are also technically challenging IMO.

[BoliverAllmon]

both musically and technically. I dig both aspects of them, but was curious as to what difficulty you would rate them as and give me a comparison to similar difficulty of pieces (preferrably etudes)

boliver

[liszmaninopin]

I would say that they are comparable to, or somewhat more difficult than Chopin's etudes
.

[BoliverAllmon]

then why don't more people play them. I absolutely love them.

[liszmaninopin]

I really don't know why they aren't played more often-I love them too!

Perhaps some people just don't know they exist.

[BoliverAllmon]

maybe too far out there for there taste also.

who do you like as a performer?

I have only heard paul jacobs perform them all.

boliver

[thracozaag]

  This friend of mine plays the hell out of them:

https://www.drewle.com/soundclips.html

koji (STSD)

[BoliverAllmon]

thanks a bunch man.

boliver

[pianowelsh]

Hiya  Working on one of them for technical exam right now No2 'pour les tierces'. I like them as a set and will eventually (many years from now i imagine) learn the lot! I would say they are not evenly good musically but the best are equal to ANY great etude. They are all very tricky. I would'nt really say there are easy ones, no 2 is probably in fact one of the easier ones technically. As for comparision with other sets the obvious paralell is Chopin as Debussy wrote them in hommage. (he also quotes Czerny in no1 - it's a great FUN piece). Having played quite a few of the Chopin ones for exams and studied all of them to some degree i have to say that i think they are at least as hard but perhaps in different ways. They are not generally so flash as Chopin or Lizst (there are exceptions of course) but in my opinion the character and 'music' of these works is harder to catch. I don't mean to imply that you should play Chopin etudes unmusically but to a degree if they are played at a good tempo and accurately they can still give a stunning impression (sound truely awfull - but because they're notey and very pianistically written - impressive). Debussy etudes don't do that so much, voicing and chord balance is extremely difficult in no2 (harder I have found than Chopins Op25/6) but that's my experience (or inexperience) and if it's not right you don't have a beautiful etude just a circ4min 'mush'. You have to really study the harmony too - I had nightmares memorizing the later part of number two and some of the others are much worse, again not so much a problem in Chopin. I think they are GREAT and get all excited when I see them come up on a programme because played well they are a reall treat!

[ludwig]

Hey guys just thought I'd bring up this topic again. I'm currently working on some of these etudes, my goal is to play them as a set. However I am going in an early 20th century comp and was wondering which ones in your opinion would both be technically brilliant as well as musically challenging and contrasting. I need perhaps 2 to 3. Let me know!

cheers

p.s I think all of them are great! and was also wondering why they are less exposed??