(Diane Walsh plays Debussy's "Reflets dans l'eau")
Classical music scholars often mark Romanticism as the last unified, European epoque in classical music. Some, according to Alex Ross, even consider Richard Strauss to be the last master under such preconception (Mr. Ross rightfully disagrees, by the way). While such notion is largely arguable there's no doubt that Impressionism, classical music's early 20th-century incarnation, is unique on several counts. Not only was the label detested by its founders Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Maurice Ravel (1975-1937), the two composers further complicated the issues by initially sharing the same friends (Ricardo Viñes, for instance) but eventually forming bitter rivalries after Debussy's public divorce to his first wife Rosalie Texier (famously right after the success of his only opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" in 1901 no less).
Please note that I'm listing both composers as the founders of Impressionism, rather that solely crediting Claude Debussy, due to the fact that the true piano Impressionistic masterpiece was not composed until 1901 by Maurice Ravel. Sure, Debussy's orchestral gem "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" (1894) initiated the genre but Ravel's "Jeux d'eau" (1901), complete with its Javanese-gamelan-inspired counterpoint, surpassed what Claude Debussy was setting to achieve in "Toccata" (1901). To illustrate the point here are the two compositions interpreted by two of the 20th-century greats, Samson François and Martha Argerich respectively: "Jeux d'eau" is marked by an unique sonority that's simply not found in "Toccata" (right below)...
Debussy's mastery in piano compositions pushed to a new height, however, after "Estampe" (1903), a collection of three piano pieces in the true style of Impressionism. His subsequent piano composition, "Images" (Book I & II) solidified him as one of the greats in classical pianistic compositions, especially with pieces such as "Reflects dans l'eau" and "Poisson d'or". Many scholars have placed the composition date of "Images" to be around 1904-1905, which would classify it as the exact contemporary of Guerlain Après L'Ondée (1906).
Dr. Luca Turin, upon reviewing Guerlain's classic, compared the watery accords of Après L'Ondée to Debussy's "Images". I suppose stylistically speaking these compositions ultimately mark the height of the Belle Epoque era, complete with their eloquent ornamentation, complex counterpoint. Simply a different time: let's hope the best of the era as a whole returns under a modern context.
Video Source: YouTube (thanks to Diane Walsh for interpreting "Reflects dans l'eau")
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