Ooooh boy...  we're in obsessive/compulsive territory now...  I've
bought more versions of this music than any other and I still continue to
surprise/appall myself by needing more.  If you can afford it, I'd start
with Gieseking's Preludes single cd on EMI plus Martin Jones' Complete
Piano Music 5cd budget box on Nimbus.  In the US you can get the both of
those for $35 total.  I know this is getting repetitive, but Gieseking
really is unsurpassed here.  His prodigious memory allowed him to navigate
Debussy's innumerable sideroads, niches, mazes, and moodswings with a focus
I haven't heard anywhere else...  no one else sounds as if they KNOW this
music back-to-front quite as well as Gieseking.  After living with his
Preludes disc for a while you'll probably want to move on to the 4cd of
his complete Debussy and let me tell you, you won't be disappointed.

Every time I hear how Gieseking's Debussy is "super-refined",
"aristocratic", "soft-edged and enveloping", etc.  (most especially from
Tom Deacon on the recent Gieseking episode of the Great Pianists radio
series-- I swear this guy does nothing but regurgitate liner-note cliches!
"If Edwin Fischer can be said to be all depth, then Gieseking has to be
said to be all surface..." oh, shut your craw, you moron!) I want to
respond, "oh, is that the Gieseking who completely flies off the handle
and demolishes the piano on 'Vent D'Ouest?' Not to mention "Puerto Del
Vino"? Whose "General Lavine" actually carries a knife?"

Jones on Nimbus is a lovely exemplar of the modern, scholarly Debussy
approach.  A bit slower than Gieseking, very careful about faithfulness
to the score but not prissy about it as with some other modern Debussyists.
The piano sound here is unique-- very reverberant.  Not bad, but very
different-- you have to get used to it a bit if you play it after a bunch
of Philips or DG piano recordings.  Reverb and overtones are very important
in Debussy, and I'd rather have a bit too much than too little in that
respect.  Jones' other great merit is that you get all the piano music for
a very very good price, including the sadly underrated Epigraphes Antiques,
certainly the equal of the other suites if you ask me, the 30+ minute Boite
A Joujoux which finds Debussy at his most Satie-esque, and the "Estampes
II"-- "Masques", "D'un Cahier", and "L'Isle Joyeuse", which Debussy planned
to publish as a triptych after the Estampes but for whatever reason
didn't-- played as a set, which works wonderfully and has become one of my
favorite of the piano sets.  Get yourself the Jones box and Paul Roberts'
wonderful interdisciplinary study from Amadeus Press, "Images-- the Piano
Music of Claude Debussy", and I guarantee you at least a month of
chair-bound fascination.

Wait til later to hear the Zimerman recording.  It's not the one to meet
this music with.  However even at double-cd price for just 84 minutes of
music it's worth buying.  Zimerman creates a hyperaesthenic, surreal sound
world where each event occurs with such laser-like clarity it feels like
a dream or nightmare.  Really, it's kind of scary!  But an essential
illumination of Debussy, and Zimerman gives more consideration to the
overtones than anyone.  I sure hope he eventually records more Debussy,
and I would spend my grocery money to fly to see him if he were to perform
the Preludes cycle somewhere!

I didn't like Livia Rev very much.  Too self conciously "impressionist".
Werner Haas, on the other hand, is too clear and precise, almost like he's
playing a celeste or something.  Arrau, sadly, misses the devilish aspect.
Jacobs I've only heard in the Images, not yet in the Preludes.  Good, but
maybe a little too poised? Avoid Frankl on Vox no matter how cheap.  He
can't cope with the music.  Thiollier on Naxos had me totally fascinated
with his irreverently wayward, neon-toned, drunken-monkey approach, until
he turned in a mess of a "Les Fees" (Book II) and the worst "Les Tierces
Alternees" (also book II) I've ever heard.  Come on Naxos, this defines the
word "retake"!!  Still, at the price it's worth hearing if you're willing
to skip those tracks, because it is truly different.  The period piano
releases from a few different pianists sound fascinating-- I mean to check
out the Cassard on Astree if I can find it.

There's an EMI France box, "Les Introuvables De Marcelle Meyer Volume 1",
which I've now given up on finding, that contains historic recordings of
most of the major Debussy works as well as Ravel.  Meyer actually premiered
a good many of both men's works in the teens and twenties, so this has to
be worth hearing.  But god knows where to find it.

Hey Don Satz-- since you're a big Moravec fan, in case you don't have it
I wanted to recommend his Vox double disc with a disc of Chopin and a disc
of Debussy (Images I and II and Estampes.) From the "succulent" school of
Debussy playing and pretty astounding.

(Note to Gieseking fanatics: Earlier this year I finally got the pricey
VAI 2cd of his earlier Debussy recordings from the 30's, reputed to be
even more magical than the later ones.  Am I correct in assuming these
30's sessions are the ones released in the Great Pianists series as well?
Anyway, 30's Gieseking with his younger fingers just edges out 50's
Gieseking in the technically demanding Preludes Book II, but in Book I,
30's Gies is a bit too superficial and 50's Gies brings invaluable poetry.
30's Gies has the better Estampes by virtue of a flawless Pagodes, though
50's G.  has slightly more magic in Soiree Dans Grenade.  As with Preludes
Book II, the 50's Children's Corner makes the 30's one look shallow and
literal.  The 30's sessions also include both Images sets, but with the
middle piece missing from each, and again 50's G.  is more profound, even
in the finger flurry of Poissons D'Or; and Suite Bergamasque, brisker than
the later version.  So I say the Great Pianists release is worth buying if
you already have the EMI box, for Preludes II, the Estampes, and Ravel's
Gaspard which is also included.  Also, any Gieseking fan ought to hear his
recording of 36 of the Grieg Lyric Pieces.  Uff Da, they're good-- he
shines here as much as in the Preludes, and of course despite several
disparaging comments from Debussy Re: Grieg, the latter is a very
important precursor to his melodic sense (Delius said: "The new French
music is simply Grieg plus the Tristan Prelude.")

Jon Lewis
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(goes on and on horribly whenever Sibelius or Debussy are mentioned)