Debussy: Les Trois Sonatas - The Late Works / Faust, Melnikov

The harmonia mundi label's ongoing series of recordings marking the centenary of the death of Claude Debussy continues with this fascinating album of chamber works. On it, violinist Isabelle Faust has brought together an all-star team of musicians including cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, violist Antoine Tamestit, flutist Magali Mosnier, harpist Xavier de Maistre and pianists Alexander Melnikov, Javier Perianes, and Tanguy de Williencourt. Three sonatas are the focal point here, with accompanied works for cello and violin complemented by the glorious Sonata for flute, Viola and Harp. The remainder of the program features a colorful selection of piano works from the composer's late period.

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Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov’s account of the Violin Sonata, Debussy’s last completed score, embraces exquisite fragility and strength in equal measure. Jean-Guihen Queyras and Javier Perianes’s performance of the Cello Sonata, noble in manner and grand in scale, balances the austere grief of the opening movement with understated wit in the Sérénade. Listen to it in a single sitting, and in the right playing order: it’s extraordinarily moving.

– Gramophone