Ilia Kim

Young Debussy Ilia Kim

One of the threads that runs through Debussy's music is an expressive range that embraces the tragic to the grotesque. This is especially evident in his early piano music. The Suite bergamasque is the masterpiece of his pre-Raphaelite period, a compound of archaism, rich lyricism and decadence. Pour le piano also evokes a medieval atmosphere, while - in it's Toccata finale - offering perpetual motion virtuosity. There is an oriental ethos in the Nocturne, the Rêverie is an alluring portrait, and Images oubliées - which was unpublished as a set until as late as 1977 - contains both rich portraiture and burlesque.