US TARIFFS UPDATE | August 2025 | No impact expected on your Presto orders | Read full details
Debussy: The Complete Works
Artists include Martha Argerich, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Samson François, Renaud Capuçon, Natalie Dessay, André Cluytens, François-Xavier Roth, Jean Martinon, Michel Plasson, Kent Nagano and Carlo Maria Giulini
Awards:
-
Diapason d’Or de l’Année, 2018, Winner - Archive
Exhaustive, the sum of the crème de la crème of the discography...THE Debussy box set to have…No richer panorama exists for the melodies (the complete EMI recordings alongside never-before-released...
Debussy: The Complete Works
Artists include Martha Argerich, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Samson François, Renaud Capuçon, Natalie Dessay, André Cluytens, François-Xavier Roth, Jean Martinon, Michel Plasson, Kent Nagano and Carlo Maria Giulini
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Diapason d’Or de l’Année, 2018, Winner - Archive
Exhaustive, the sum of the crème de la crème of the discography...THE Debussy box set to have…No richer panorama exists for the melodies (the complete EMI recordings alongside never-before-released...
About
This 33-CD set, comprising outstanding recordings selected by Debussy experts, exemplifies the depth and breadth of the Warner Classics catalogue and the label’s commitment to producing comprehensive landmark editions of the highest quality.
Being complete, the set complements much-loved masterpieces, the foundation of Debussy’s reputation, with works that remain lesser-known or which have even remained undiscovered until now.
It includes transcriptions/orchestrations of Debussy’s works by other composers that Debussy himself approved, and also Debussy’s own transcriptions of works by other composers, some of them previously unrecorded.
Among the works given world-premiere recordings are:
• Chanson des brises (1882) for female voices and piano
• Diane au bois (1885-87) for soprano, ténor et piano
• The first version (1898) of the Chansons de Charles d’Orléans;
• Fragments of the opera La Chute de la maison Usher (1916) as Debussy left it
• Piano reductions of Khamma and Jeux by the composer.
Debussy himself can be heard accompanying the Scottish soprano Mary Garden (his original Mélisande) in the Ariettes oubliées and a short extract from Pelléas et Mélisande, and in various piano works, recorded for the gramophone and in the form of piano rolls.
The recording of the mystery play with music Le Martyre de saint Sébastien, conducted by André Cluytens, is the only recording to present Gabriele d’Annunzio’s complete text.
Among the French/adoptive French/French-Canadian performers are:
PIANISTS Pierre-Laurent Aimard • Michel Béroff • Philippe Cassard • Bertrand Chamayou • Aldo Ciccolini • Jean-Philippe Collard • Claude Debussy • Jérôme Ducros • Jacques Février • Samson François
INSTRUMENTALISTS Renaud Capuçon • Maurice Gendron • Emmanuel Pahud • Lily Laskine • Quatuor Ebène
SINGERS Roberto Alagna • Natalie Dessay • Karina Gauvin • Véronique Gens • Philippe Jaroussky • François Le Roux • Mady Mesplé • Gérard Souzay • José van Dam • Rachel Yakar
ACTRESS Delphine Seyrig
CONDUCTORS André Cluytens • Jean Martinon • Michel Plasson • Manuel Rosenthal • François-Xavier Roth
Among the other major artists are:
PIANISTS Martha Argerich • Yuri Egorov INSTRUMENTALISTS Yehudi Menuhin • Itzhak Perlman SINGERS Elly Ameling • Mary Garden • Rita Gorr • Barbara Hendricks CONDUCTORS Daniel Barenboim • James Conlon • Mikko Franck •Carlo Maria Giulini • Armin Jordan • Kent Nagano • Sir Simon Rattle
Contents and tracklist
Spotlight on this release
-
An error occurred.
Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.
-
An error occurred.
Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.
-
An error occurred.
Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.
Awards and reviews
-
Diapason d’Or de l’Année2018Winner - Archive
Diapason
Exhaustive, the sum of the crème de la crème of the discography...THE Debussy box set to have…No richer panorama exists for the melodies (the complete EMI recordings alongside never-before-released treasures unearthed by Denis Herlin for Ligia), the chicest Enfant prodigue (Alagna, Gauvin and Lapointe!), the only complete Martyre de saint Sébastien (Véra Korène in the title-role and Cluytens at the podium), the sole Rodrigue et Chimène in the discography (revived by Nagano), the cantatas for the Prix de Rome that made Hervé Niquet’s reputation, piles of transcriptions for piano and orchestra.
3rd January 2017
Presented chronologically within each genre, it’s a scrupulously assembled and documented collection...As a reference source it is invaluable, especially for tracking down some of the early songs or more obscure fragments of orchestral music...There are very few musicological loose ends here, and to have all these rarities as well as the masterpieces available in a single package (though without any texts and translations), makes it a very satisfying survey.
Two big rival boxes of Debussy CDs have appeared: both are labelled Complete Works, but Warner Classics boasts 33 discs and Deutsche Grammophon a mere 22. Warner’s includes all the extant transcriptions and arrangements alongside the masterpieces, and a thorough exploration of the composer’s very early work which has uncovered two premieres, the Chanson des brises (1882) afor soprano, women’s choir and piano, and Diane au bois, a tantalising, fragmentary mini opera of 1885-7.
