Judith  Jáuregui

Recorded live from the Imperial in concert series organised by Bösendorfer in Vienna, this CD came into being as a tribute concert played in 2018 to mark the centenary of the death of the French composer, and it is conceived now in album form as a journey through the works of Debussy and of composers intimately linked to him.

Pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy begins with Falla's work of the same name, a tribute that the Spaniard wrote on occasion of the French composer’s death. It is a funeral march to the rhythm of a Habanera, which relates the strong relationship of mutual influence and admiration maintained between the two composers. This piece is followed on the album by Ballade no. 2 by Liszt, one of Debussy's predecessors, who established a crucial bridge between Romanticism and what is known as Impressionism, of which Debussy would be the maximum exponent. And so we reach the mid-point in the album, where we come across two pianistic jewels by Debussy: the Estampes and L’isle joyeuse. In Estampes we find the magic, the perfume and the exotic notes of the Debussyian soul and in L’isle joyeuse we discover a brilliance and extrovert nature which are most unusual in his catalogue. From there we arrive at another of Debussy's great points of reference, Frédéric Chopin, with his Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise Brillante op. 22, a grand dance which, while heroic, is always elegant, full of spirit and bravura. The Andante reflects the lyricism which so captivated Debussy during his years of study at the Paris Conservatoire. As a farewell to this journey, the childhood memory that was always present in Debussy appears in last place on the album, in the form of the delicious Jeunes filles au jardin by Federico Mompou, another of the composers whose works are fundamental in the life and career of Judith Jáuregui.

This album is the first collaboration between Judith and the German label ARS Produktion.