AVIE is delighted to welcome a true ‘thinking virtuoso’: American pianist Russell Sherman, who has been hailed for his technique and his great thoughtfulness through pieces that are classics of the repertoire but with a freshness of approach. And which composer best represents Sherman’s insight on music other than Debussy?

As the pianist points himself : ‘Debussy is undone by the beauty of his sound, an eternal sunset which seems to obliterate the senses as it seduces the ear. It is as endless as the whole-tone scale, its natural lair, and as ingratiating as the satyr’s dream. (…) One has to believe in such things, yet it seems hardly worth playing Debussy if one were not transported into this world.’

If one has to believe in this world of extravagant harmonic progressions, exquisite melodies leading to a sense of senseless order, Russell Sherman certainly is the one interpreter whose profile fits every note of this particular and highly ethereal world of Debussy.

‘first a fierceness of imagination that makes us rethink what we know by heart, and then a physical technique allowing the most difficult music a confident sense of order and repose’ New York Times