The recording features the Bösendorfer Concert Grand 280VC, a piano model designed to combine the characteristic Bösendorfer sound with modern dynamic responsiveness and versatility.
Recording & Production
This album was recorded using 24-bit / 96 kHz technology, which provides a dynamic range up to 48 dB greater and 256 times the resolution of standard 16-bit recordings.
Composer's Artistic Vision
For his Nocturnes, Debussy intended the title to be taken in a "more general and above all decorative sense," focusing on impressions and special lighting effects rather than the traditional nocturne form.
Performer Biography
Hélène Mercier and Louis Lortie, the pianists on this album, have made numerous critically acclaimed recordings together, including works by Mozart, Poulenc, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Saint-Saëns, and Schubert.
Composition History
Debussy's Deux Danses were commissioned in 1904 by the piano-manufacturing firm Pleyel to showcase their newly designed double-harp, which had a separate string for each chromatic note.
Performer Biography
Louis Lortie, one of the pianists, has a discography of over forty-five recordings with Chandos Records, spanning repertoire from Mozart to Stravinsky, including a complete cycle of Beethoven's sonatas.
Composition History
Debussy's Nocturnes were originally conceived in 1894 as pieces for Violin and Orchestra, intended for the Belgian virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe, before the idea of a violin soloist was abandoned.
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