CD 1:
Claude Debussy:
Images I & II
L’ isle joyeuse
Estampes
Deux Arabesques
Pour le Piano

CD 2:
Camille Saint-Saens:
Sechs Bagatellen, Op. 3
Album, Op. 72
Valse canariote, Op. 88
Valse langoureuse, Op. 120
Valse gaie, Op. 139
Gavotte, Op. 23
Feuillet d’ album, Op. 169

CD 3 - Lieder:
Camille Saint-Saens:
L’ Attente (Victor Hugo)
La Coccinelle (Victor Hugo)
Reverie (Victor Hugo)
Guitare (Victor Hugo)
Si vous n’ avez rien a me dire (Victor Hugo)
Viens (ca. 1855) (Victor Hugo)
Tournoiement (Armand Renaud)
Danse macabre (Henri Cazalis)
La cigale et la fourmi (ca. 1860)
El Desdichado (Jules Barbier)
Guitares et mandolines (C. Saint-Saëns)
Grasselette et maigrelette
Pastorale (Philippe N. Destouches)

Claude Debussy:
Voici que le printemps (Paul Bourget)
Clair de lune (Paul Verlaine)
Clair de lune(Paul Verlaine
C’ est l’ extase (Paul Verlaine)
Il pleure dans mon coeur (Paul Verlaine)
Chevaux de bois (Paul Verlaine)
Le Faune (Paul Verlaine)
Le jet d’ eau (C. Baudelaire)
Recueillement (C. Baudelaire)
Chansons de Bilitis (Pierre Louys)
Ballade des femmes de Paris (François Villon)
Noël des enfants qui n’ ont plus de maisons (Claude Debussy)

CD 4 - Kammermusik:
Claude Debussy:
Trio für Klavier, Violine und Violoncello in G-Dur

Ernest Amedee Chausson:
Konzert für Violine, Klavier und Streichquartett in D-Dur, Op. 21

VIVA LA FRANCE

30 Years of Ruhr Piano Festival

“Vive la France!” – That is the motto which stood as an emblem for the Ruhr Piano Festival in 2018, its Anniversary Year. Commemorating the end of the First World War in 1918 and paying homage to Debussy, who likewise passed away a century ago, we decided to place the Festival’s annual focus on German-French friendship, an important political and cultural axis that has played a significant role in the history of music. I am therefore particularly pleased that this year’s boxed set of 4 CDs highlights France as a great cultural nation by featuring the highly variegated, exhilarating repertoire of two composers who left an indelible mark on the late 19th century: Claude Debussy and Camille Saint-Saens. (Franz Xaver Ohnesorg)

Ever since the Festival was founded in 1988, this cultural flagship of the Ruhr Circle of Initiatives has evolved to become the most well-known address for professional pianists on a worldwide scale. Celebrated masters of their craft and young rising stars all congregate each year in the Rhine-Ruhr region to present the fascinating, variegated world of piano music to an enthusiastic audience. One of the Festival’s remarkable traits is that it lends particular prominence to young artists who are at the beginning of their careers. (Ulrich Weber, Patron of the Piano Festival 2018)

---

Live recordings 2018