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Debussy works for cello and piano...
There's a Romance, a transcription of Reverie, and the Sonata in D minor, Sonata in D minor, Sonata in D minor.
Now, Intermezzo!
See a page, and read the notes (below). |
HISTORICAL AND EDITORIAL NOTES by Jeffrey Solow
The young Claude Debussy (or Achille as he preferred to be known at the time) included the cello in some of his earliest instrumental compositions. His Suite pour Violoncelle Solo et Orchestra, dating from 1882, was concurrent with another cello work, the Nocturne et Scherzo, and preceded by the Trio in G (for Violin, Cello, and Piano) that he wrote in 1880 for the trio-in-residence of his then patron, Madame Nadezhda von Meck. It is reasonable to assume that both cello pieces were conceived for Peter Danilchenko (b. 1860), the cellist of the trio.
In Paris in the 1930's, my teacher Gregor Piatigorsky purchased a Debussy manuscript entitled "Suite pour Violoncelle Solo et Orchestre. / 4./ Intermezzo /Piano et violoncelle" - seemingly the only extant movement of the suite. It is not known if Debussy ever orchestrated it. (An orchestrated version of an Intermezzo is rumored to exist in a private collection but this may be a different Intermezzo, inspired by Heine, recently published in Debussy's piano duet version.)
After performing the Intermezzo all over the world, Piatigorsky arranged for Elkan-Vogel to publish his edition in 1944. Soon after its publication, however, Piatigorsky met Debussy's stepdaughter and heir, the "petite but forceful" (in the words of Debussy scholar Roy Howat) Madame de Tinan - the Dolly of Faure's Dolly Suite - who expressed her opinion that the Intermezzo was among the early works that Debussy had chosen not to print. Being the owner of the manuscript, Piatigorsky had the legal right to publish it, but he respected her wishes and had the Elkan-Vogel edition withdrawn from circulation, although not before a few copies had made their way into the world. I found and purchased one of these copies in Los Angeles and as Madame de Tinan had given Piatigorsky permission to perform the Intermezzo, he passed that permission on to me and gave me a photocopy of the manuscript. In 1975, I had the honor of making the world premiere recording on LP, and I recorded it again in 1985. Now that the Trio, the Nocturne et Scherzo and other of Debussy's early works have been published, it seems appropriate to reissue Piatigorsky's edition of the Intermezzo.
The autograph is extremely spare in dynamics, slurs, and character indications of the sort that Debussy's much later Sonate has in abundance, so Piatigorsky added bowings, fingerings, dynamics, a few ritardandi, and, where they seemed appropriate, musical directions such as espressivo and quasi scherzando. Piatigorsky made one substantial change - so that the solo cello would not drop out at the most climactic moment in the piano version, he transformed the first four measures of the final Tempo I (at m. 122) from what would certainly have been an effective tutti in an orchestrated version into an accompanied cello solo. In the present edition, Debussy's original solo piano "tutti" has been restored, and Piatigorsky's version of these measures is provided below as an alternative. (I often perform the cello's melody line from the Piatigorsky edition here along with Debussy's original piano part.) This publication's engraving has been laid out to allow the following ossia to be taped over the score and part. |
In the original Elkan-Vogel edition, Piatigorsky indicated a tempo at m. 102. However, it seems more likely that Debussy intended these measures to be taken at a slower tempo with poco a poco crescendo ed accelerando beginning around m. 113, leading to the Tempo I that Debussy marked at m. 122. We have presented it that way here.
In this new edition, the extracted cello part contains Piatigorsky's bowings and fingerings, while the piano score remains true to Debussy's manuscript so players may make their own decisions.
Editorial corrections of Debussy's obvious omissions and mistakes have been inserted without comment. Accidentals and other markings that are less certain, as well as editorial and tempo suggestions, are in square brackets.
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