DEBUSSY 2 Arabesques. Images: Sets 1 & 2. Children’s Corner. Suite bergamasque: Clair de lune. L’isle joyeuse • Simon Trpčeski (pn) • EMI 00272 (62:27)

This young Macedonian-born pianist has won prizes in several international competitions and already made lauded EMI recordings of works by Rachmaninoff and Chopin, among others. This disc, my introduction to his playing, offers colorful, persuasive, and technically accomplished readings of many of Debussy’s best pre-1910 works. He is equally at home in the charming, early Arabesques, the touching and often humorous vignettes of Children’s Corner, the masterful colorism of the Images, and the striking virtuosity of L’isle joyeuse. He is especially good at differentiating his touches even while providing the requisite washes of pedalled sound, particularly in the first, fourth, and sixth of the Images. His pacing in the faster pieces and especially his control of sound during climactic moments attest to a degree of musicianship that goes well beyond the obvious sensational approaches of some of his younger peers. Rather, the comparison should be with such venerable pianists as Michelangeli in the Images and Gieseking in Children’s Corner. Like them, Trpčeski plays with much imagination, yet he never calls attention to himself. And in the concluding pages of L’isle joyeuse, he stirs up more excitement than even Horowitz and Richter mustered on their otherwise fine accounts. Trpčeski provides just the sort of playing that Debussy himself seems to have liked, to judge from his letters and coaching. In short, I highly recommend this disc and I look forward to the time when this pianist will favor us with the complete Préludes and the Douze Etudes.

FANFARE: Charles Timbrell