Name: Debussy - Deux Arabesques by Phil Best
Duration: 7 min 19 s
Description: You can also follow me on Spotify at https://spoti.fi/2MRR1lV and stream the albums I have released there.

I personally find Arabesque I to be the more enjoyable of the two pieces. The opening theme is simply beautiful, and the middle section is a nice change of pace. The final section is also very effective, as it brings the piece to a gentle and reflective close. Arabesque II is also a very well-composed piece, but I find it to be a bit more challenging to listen to. The melodies are more complex, and the harmonies are more dissonant. The piece is also quite long, which can make it a bit tiring to listen to all at once. Overall, Deux Arabesques are two essential pieces for any fan of Debussy's music. The pieces are both beautiful and evocative, and they offer a glimpse into the early development of Debussy's unique style.

Fantastic performance, really reflects your intelligence

Merveilleux à écouter au coeur de la nuit!

From my Cd album: DEBUSSY-Nature Myth Legend
available at:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/debussy-nature-myth-legend/id716186796
http://www.amazon.com/Debussy-Nature-Myth-Legend-Hal-Freedman/dp/B00F57VTRG/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1381437513&sr=1-1
http://cdbaby.com/halfreedman4
YouTube Video:http://youtu.be/LlsfqaLmQ1A

Debussy-Nature Myth Legend

Reverie

Ravel's stupidly beautiful Pavane for a Dead Princess. He wrote it in 1899, this is my interpretation of it 115 years later.

iTunes UK. Feed me!

Ravel Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte

You can also follow me on Spotify at https://spoti.fi/2MRR1lV and stream the albums I have released there.

Debussy - Deux Arabesques

Debussy's sublime summer prelude, 'La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin'.

The indicated 'Très calm et doucement expresiff' (Very calm and gentle in expressiveness) is quietly asserting tranquility. This is a piece to be savoured and experienced like a summer's gentle breeze; incentivised by the source for the prelude - the poem that bears the identical title of the prelude, written by Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle in the mid-19th century (published in 1874). It is said that Debussy found the inspiration for the prelude within the poem, but for me, the prelude is almost a musical transcription of the poem. I include both the English translation (Laura L. Nagle, 2007) of Lisle's poem, and the original French version as well, below. Read the poem whilst listening to the recording and you will find more than a serendipitous likeness!  
____________________

The girl with the flaxen hair

Who sits upon the blooming lucerne,  
Singing from the earliest morn?  
It is the girl with the flaxen hair,  
The beauty with cherry-red lips.

Love, in the bright summer sun,  
Sang with the lark.

Your mouth has divine colours,
 My dear, and is tempting to kiss!
  Do you wish to chat upon the blooming grasses,  
Girl with long lashes and delicate curls?

Love, in the bright summer sun,  
Sang with the lark.

Do not say no, cruel girl!
  Do not say yes! I shall better understand  
A long gaze from your large eyes  
And your pink lips, o my beauty!

Love, in the bright summer sun,  
Sang with the lark.

Farewell to the deer, farewell to the hares  
And the red partridges!  I wish 
To kiss the flax of your hair,  
To press upon the crimson of your lips!

Love, in the bright summer sun,  
Sang with the lark.
  ____________________

La fille aux cheveux de lin

Sur la luzerne en fleur assise,  
Qui chante dès le frais matin?
  C'est la fille aux cheveux de lin,
  La belle aux lèvres de cerise.

L'amour, au clair soleil d'été,  
Avec l'alouette a chanté.

Ta bouche a des couleurs divines,  
Ma chère, et tente le baiser!  
Sur l'herbe en fleur veux-tu causer,  
Fille aux cils longs, aux boucles fines?

L'amour, au clair soleil d'été,  
Avec l'alouette a chanté.

Ne dis pas non, fille cruelle!  
Ne dis pas oui! J'entendrai mieux
  Le long regard de tes grands yeux
  Et ta lèvre rose, ô ma belle!

L'amour, au clair soleil d'été,
  Avec l'alouette a chanté.

Adieu les daims, adieu les lièvres  
Et les rouges perdrix! Je veux
  Baiser le lin de tes cheveux,  
Presser la pourpre de tes lèvres!

L'amour, au clair soleil d'été,
  Avec l'alouette a chanté.
  ____________________  
Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle (1818 - 1894), "La fille aux cheveux de lin", from Poèmes antiques, in 'Chansons écossaises'
illustration: Monet - Monet - 'Woman with a Parasol, facing right', 1886, Musée D'Orsay, Paris

Claude Debussy - Prelude in G flat major - no. 8 from Book 1: 'La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin'

Menuet

Menuet - For Piano & Flute - Suite Bergamasque - Claude Debussy

Nuit d'etoiles - Claude Debussy

Emile Pandolfi  Once Upon A December

1stpiano's most popular solo piano music, including Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, Debussy's Clair de Lune, Bach, Liszt, Mozart and more.

02-Arabesque-Debussy

Classic Debussy piece, he's my favorite composer hands down most of my repertoire consists of his works. This is my interpretation of Rêverie. The word comes from Rêve(dream), this variant is French for daydream or just pleasantly dozing off into deep thought, escaping reality. This is the second piano piece I learned.. Hope you enjoy.

Rêverie - Debussy - Rígel

01 Debussy - The Girl with the Flaxen Hair

I produced this track using midi and EW Gold Pianos in order to perfection the performance as I imagine it.

Franz Liszt - Liebestraum - Love Dream

Follow me on Spotify at https://spoti.fi/2N29ify.

For Phil, traditional classical piano training was something of a straitjacket. He rebelled from a very young age by teaching himself to improvise and play by ear. Fundamentally gentle by nature - he’s a vegan and life-long meditator - the competitive world of classical piano seemed brutal. Phil plays music simply for the love of it and nothing else matters to him. He’s not interested in definitive interpretations or who-can-play-the-fastest performances: what Phil offers is real musical sense, through delivering rhythm and groove, melody and harmony with depth, clarity and unconventional intelligibility.

Phil plays in a refreshingly unpretentious and accessible way, telling musical stories with vivid, straightforward passion. Being a Yorkshireman, he says it how it is, and music for him is profound solace, catharsis and joy: so this is what he offers. Being extraordinarily fluent in the language of music on the keys, he loves to improvise freely, allowing the music to pour forth spontaneously, from a place of deep body-and-soul consciousness. And he aims to make the music of Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninov, and every piece he plays, come from this place of real transformation and healing.

Debussy - Deux Arabesques

Phil Best

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