PrΘlude, Choral et Fugue - Franck

╔tudes, Book 2 - Debussy

The continental air of Foster Place, a quiet backwater in Dublin shaded by trees, was a sympathetic introduction to a recital of French music in the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre last Wednesday.

Deborah Armstrong, who has been in North America for the past six years (but is originally from Dublin), showed that she can be as persuasive in the grandiose statements of Franck as in the refined suggestiveness of Debussy. Indeed, without losing any of the grandeur, she made Franck's Prelude, Choral et Fugue a more intimate experience than you would have expected. The composer could, as it were, be glimpsed, delighting in his elaborate working out of his ideas and the gradual growth to the powerful climax.

Though Debussy's ╔tudes have alarmingly technical titles, they are as full of pictorial fantasy as the PrΘludes, and it would not be hard to attribute suitable poetic images to them - especially in Deborah Armstrong's sensitive and confident reading. There was strength and sweetness supporting each other, without satiety.