Moura Lympany: Debussy’s 'Claire de Lune'

On 3 November 1952 Moura Lympany recorded the ubiquitous ‘Claire de Lune’ from Claude Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque (1890). It was released on HMV C4203 coupled with Isaac Albeniz’s well known Tango in D major arranged by Leopold Godowsky. An advert for the record appeared in the January 1953 edition of The Gramophonemagazine alongside new releases such as Kirsten Flagstad and Gerald Moore performing Schubert’s ‘Frühlingsglaube’ and ‘Im Abendrot’ and Jascha Heifetz’s rendition of Saint-Saëns Havanaise Op.83.

‘Claire de Lune’ is the third piece in the Suite Bergamasque: it comes after the ‘Prelude’, the ‘Menuet’ and is followed by a ‘Passepied’. The original title of ‘Claire de Lune’ may have been ‘Promenade Sentimentale’ and the last movement was to have been a ‘Pavane’.  The four pieces were composed around 1890 but were not published until1905. It was Debussy’s intention to try to capture the ‘delicacy and elegance’ of the early days of the French clavecin (harpsichord).

Frank Dawes (BBC Music Guide: Debussy Piano Music, 1969, 1975) has noted that the title possibly refers to Verlaine’s poem of the same name ‘in which long-dead dancers in the moonlight [are] dancing forever to a ghostly music.’

Robert Schmitz (The Piano Works of Claude Debussy, 1950) has written that the most important requirement for a good performance of the piece is to ensure that ‘no bench-in-the-park’ be part of it. It must be contemplative and trustful.’ 

The contemporary 1955 edition of the Record Guide edited by Edward Sackville-West and Desmond Shawe Taylor refers to Moura Lympany’s ‘quiet and lucid performance [being] in full accord with the title.

H.F. (Harry Farjeon?) writing in the same edition of The Gramophone noted above suggests that Moura Lympany has presented ‘Claire de Lune’ as a ‘calculated performance.’ He notes no ‘uncalled for mistiness or fussy romance.’ He imagines that the moon is ‘bien clair’ and that around it is almost as bright as daylight though more subtly charming.’ 

I have never considered the middle section of Debussy’s well-known piece to contain ‘mild excitement’ however H.F. believes that this is well-achieved.  But the important point is that Miss Lympany does not ‘hold herself back through any lack of generous pianistic feeling, only through deliberate reserve’. He concluded by admitting her ‘effects were a little posed.’ Interestingly the reviewer felt that the sound level of 'Claire de Lune' was considerably lower than the Tango.

Jeremy Nicolas (The Gramophone Awards 2013) in a review of the APR Recordings 2012 reissue of this record on CD, notes that ‘Claire de Lune’ can often lapse into sentimentality, and therefore by default implies that Lympany has avoided this ‘besetting’ sin.

This is a version of ‘Claire de Lune’ that I am delighted to have in my collection, in spite of any residual surface noise retained after transfer from the 78’s.

Moura Lympany’s 1952 performance of Claude Debussy’s ‘Claire de Lune’ can be heard on APR Recordings APR6011 and a brief extract can be heard on the Hyperion Website. 

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Moura Lympany: An English Pianist playing Rachmaninov 3

I heard Moura Lympany's performance of the Edvard Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor at a 1975 Glasgow Promenade Concert:  ever since I have been a fan of her playing. Shortly after this concert, I found a copy of her recording of Alan Rawsthorne’s first piano concerto. This had originally been issued on HMV CLP1118 in 1957. Around the same time I bought one of the iconic series of Decca Eclipse albums that featured Lympany playing Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto coupled with five of his Preludes. I have disposed of the record but have since purchased the transfer to CD on Moura Lympany: Decca Recordings 1951-1952 on the Decca Originals series made in 2004. There has been a further release on the Magdalen label (METCD8016) (2012)

The original recording had been released on Decca LXT2701 and was a 12” disc priced at 39s.6d (nearly £2) which would have been a considerable price in 1952. The New Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Anthony Collins.

M.M. writing in The Gramophone (August 1952) considered that Moura Lympany gave a ‘smooth, fluent and very well-shaped performance of this very difficult work, revealing every facet of its slightly Sunday-afternoonish beauty.’ Bearing in mind that Rachmaninov had composed this concerto whilst he was living in the tranquil setting of his, family’s country estate, Ivanovka, this description is ideal.  The work was completed on 23 September 1909.

The reviewer felt that the slow movement was the weak point in this recording and could have had ‘a little more to yield up than pianist of conductor will claim.’

However, he felt that '...the Lympany style ...gives the work a well rounded unity that it does not always seem to possess.’ Personally I disagree with the second half of this sentence: I feel that is it is a well-rounded, formally satisfying concerto.

Some sixty years later Donald Ellman has reviewed the Magdalen 2012 transfers of Lympany’s performance to CD. Writing in the Classical Recording Quarterly (Autumn 2012) he has pointed out that it is ‘extremely fleet and nimble... there is always a very natural sense of momentum, with no sense of indulgence and posturing that has characterised some more recent performances.’  He considers that ‘her playing is imbued with lovely sound that seems to come from within rather than being imposed from without’.

It is surprising to read that here were some minor cuts made to each movement. I understand that the composer himself authorised a number of cuts to the score that could be made at the pianist’s discretion.  These were mainly in the second and third movements and to the cadenza.  At the time of the recording, it was standard practice to make these cuts and probably helped to squeeze the entire work onto one LP. The reviewer in The Gramophone felt that ‘little was lost’. The re-master is about 36-37 minutes long – however a modern recording would be typically on the 40 minute mark.

Donald Ellman notes that the cuts to the three movements follows Rachmaninov’s own. He wonders if the composer would have made them is he had the ‘advantages of modern technology.’ In 2012 cuts to this work would hardly be tolerated.

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