Gramophone: Editor's Choice; Penguin Guide 3 stars.
Noriko Ogawa’s Debussy series continues with some of the best-known – and best-loved – music Debussy ever wrote. The first book of Preludes and, especially, Children’s Corner belong to those rare works which form part of the repertoire of both performers and happy amateurs. But however well-known La fille aux cheveux de lin or Golliwogg’s cake-walk may be, Noriko Ogawa manages to create them anew for us with an approach that can described with a quote from a review of the previous instalment: "almost Mozartian in its clarity, delicacy and impeccable sense of proportion." That she also treats us to some rarities, such as Debussy’s homage to Haydn, and rounds off the program with the delightful waltz La plus que lente can only add to the pleasure!
Some press voices:
"Every bar of these new performances confirm Ogawa as a most elegant, scrupulously sensitive interpreter of 'music like a dream from which one draws away the veil." Gramophone, March 2003
"A particularly fine Debussy player...These performances are of consistently high standard." International Piano, September 2003
"Le disque de Noriko Ogawa révèle une excellente musicienne, de temperamente classique: une concéption mesurée et narrative de Debussy, reposant sur un piano somptueux. Un très beau disque." Classica, June 2003
“Noriko Ogawa legt den zweiten Teil ihrer Debussy-Sammlung vor und belegt erneut, dass sie eine Künstlerin ist, die Technik, Stilbewusstsein und gestalterische Dringlichkeit vereint." Fono Forum, July 2003
