Perfectly Adequate Jacques Rouvier's Debussy Préludes - heard by JULIAN JACOBSON '... the performances lack a degree of intensity and personal involvement.'

It is difficult either to criticise Jacques Rouvier's Debussy Préludes or to get very enthusiastic about them. There is no doubting the sincerity or the impressive musical and pianistic culture that lies behind these performances, which were recorded in 1982 and 1983. Rouvier was a comparatively young pianist then, in his mid-thirties, yet if anything the playing sounds too 'mature': it reminds me of Berlioz's celebrated bon mot about Saint-Saëns, 'He has everything but lacks inexperience'...

CLAUDE DEBUSSY

FRANCE

PIANO