Claude Debussy: L'Isle joyeuse / Finghin Collins, piano

Hommage à Pleyel

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Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
L'Isle joyeuse

Finghin Collins, piano

Hommage à Pleyel - Finghin Collins

The origins of this project go back to 2022, when I was invited to perform on a rebuilt Pleyel 280 concert grand piano dating from 1937. The piano had been completely restored and rebuilt by Matthias Maurer of Piano Workshop, Puidoux, Switzerland and the concert was to take place in neighbouring Cully, as part of the festival Lavaux Classic 2023. The concept of the concert was to have two concert grand pianos on stage, a Steinway D and the Pleyel. I was to play a programme on both pianos, allowing the audience to compare the two instruments.

The experience was revelatory, particularly as I shared some movements across both instruments, allow­ing for a true comparison of the two pianos. The reaction from audience and press was unanimously positive. I had made a new friend, falling totally in love with the sound of the Pleyel piano and the ease with which one could draw beautiful sounds from it. I found it particularly beautiful in the slow movements of Haydn and Mozart sonatas, where the long notes seemed to linger longer than usual, but I also relished its singing, clear tone in Chopin and Schumann.

Almost immediately, I decided that I wanted to record a CD on this piano, with a programme celebrating the history of the Pleyel family and brand. The pro­gramme opens with one of my favourite sonatas by Joseph Haydn, the piano teacher of Ignaz Pleyel. I have been playing his E minor Sonata for years and I love the mix of humour and darkness, light and shade with its wickedly cheeky finale alternating between major and minor. This is followed by two lesser-known works by Ignaz Pleyel (1757–1831), who as well as being a pianist and composer was also a music publisher. In 1807 he founded the Pleyel piano manufacturing firm, which was to become very important in France during the nineteenth century. The influence of Haydn is clear in both the E flat Rondo and the short B flat Sonata; in particular the almost operatic, bubblingly energetic opening of the Sonata’s first movement and its witty and brief finale. [..]

Read more, links, CD order & info: https://www.claves.ch/collections/fin...

Release date: 21.11.2025
Album N°: CD 3107
EAN: 7619931310725
ISRC: CH1262510717
https://www.claves.ch
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