Suite Bergamesque: Deux Arabesques; Hommage A Haydn; Berceuse HΘro∩que; La Plus Que Lente; Pour Le Piano - Debussy

The title of the Suite Bergamasque was inspired by the poems of Verlaine, but the sensuous richness of the harmonies are Debussy at his most characteristic.

In her midday recital at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin last Sunday, Therese Fahy luxuriated in the decorative density of the early Debussy, a density even more pronounced in the Deux Arabesques.

Hommage A Haydn, whose theme is constructed from the letters of Haydn's name, has a clearer formal feeling, and the Berceuse HΘro∩que, which quotes the Belgian national anthem, also avoids the arabesque.

Neither, however, attains the delicate balance of form and feeling that the composer reached in La Plus Que Lente.

In this piece and in the three movements of Pour Le Piano, pianist met composer most happily. The plainness of the last title belies the excessively elaborate fabric of sound that was Debussy's expressive means, and which Therese Fahy displayed with warm sympathy.