The appeal of Debussy's Etudes to composers and to discerning performers has never been in doubt. Boulez and Barraque are among those to have expressed admiration for their forward-looking elements, and pianists have been fascinated by their combined challenge to technical and imaginative resourcefulness. Whether they are therefore essentially musicians' music, or whether they might eventually enjoy comparable popularity to Debussy's other major piano works, remains to be seen.
If any of the above-listed recordings is likely to win converts it must surely be Mitsuko Uchida's. Her playing carries blazing conviction at every turn, and its sheer virtuosity is breathtaking (I don't regard myself as easily breathtaken). Vivid communication is helped by a fairly forward, resonant recording, which captures every nuance without detriment to overall perspectives.
For those already under the spell of these subtly elusive pieces it could all be a bit much. At first there did seem to me something hyperactive and spasmodic about Uchida's characterization, as though she was taking each study by the scruff of the neck and shaking it. But gradually it became clear that subtler shades of sonority and mood were also being expressed. By the middle of the cycle of 12 I was hooked—the study ''Pour les octaves'', No. 5, is truly joyeux et emporte, the following scale studies are bordering on the miraculous, and the ornaments of No. 8 display a sensitivity to harmony and texture that silences criticism. By the end, having relished the sly wit of ''les notes repetees'', the quiet smouldering of ''les sonorites opposees'', the dreamlike rippling of ''les arpeges composes'', and the resilience of ''les accords'', I was not just won over but bowled over. I can see some Debussy lovers still finding the whole experience more dazzling than illuminating, but my own feeling is that these readings expand notions of Debussian style rather than violating it.
It is bad luck for Gordon Fergus-Thompson to enter the field at this time. Measured against the listed comparisons his playing has much to offer, especially in the pastel shadings and inwardness of the studies in fourths and sixths. The latter has a melancholic rubato and a hazy atmosphere which I am inclined to prefer even to Uchida, and ''Pour les agrements'' (No. 8) has a wonderfully idiomatic sultriness. Nor is his impressive technical grasp in doubt in such bravura studies as ''Pour les octaves''. The main problem is that such things are achieved in spite of the instrument and the acoustic, rather than with their wholehearted co-operation. The sound is recessed and clouded by over-resonance, and the tone too readily becomes strident (''les arpeges composes'' are additionally affected by an out-of-tune E flat which happens to be a crucial note). Even allowing for that, the articulation is not as focused and the range of dynamics and colour not as wide as Uchida's; there are fewer perspectives in ''les sonorites opposees'' (the 'distant' fanfares actually sound closer than their surroundings, for instance) and at the other extreme less exultation in the concluding study, ''Pour les accords''. In No. 7 two passages of chromatic figuration are not as Debussy wrote them (track 10, from 00' 12'' and from 1' 42''), nor is the rhythm of the arpeggios for two bars in No. 11 (track 14, from 0' 54'').
Fergus-Thompson also offers a generally enjoyable Pour le piano, though again the sound is very harsh in the top octave. The personal touches in the ''Sarabande'' are arguably more disruptive than poetic, the ''Toccata'' comes with some unconvincing jabbing accents, and the right hand F sharps from 1' 47'' in the ''Prelude'' are absent without leave.
As CH and JM-C have noted, the comparative versions of the Etudes are more or less handicapped by deficiences in recording quality. These effectively cancel out the virtues of Martin Jones (Nimbus) and Jacques Rouvier (Denon). Garrick Ohlsson on Arabesque/Harmonia Mundi gets off more lightly, and he displays all the requisite strength, fluidity and poetry; only a degree of fantasy is lacking. Despite Theodore Paraskivesco's unassertive technique and occasional carelessness with the text and Calliope/Harmonia Mundi's thin-sounding recording, I much enjoyed the way he simply appreciates Debussy's sound-world rather than feeling obliged to spotlight it. He it is who most nearly recalls the playing of Gieseking (whose technique was, however, stretched beyond its limits). Still, returning for spot-check comparisons between all six versions I found Uchida supreme in every instance, and in pretty well every department, be it refinement of sonority, accent, timing, characterization or sheer dexterity.'