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PHILIPPE BIANCONI 17
When did you discover Debussy’s music?
Philippe Bianconi
: My first real encounter took place when I was 11 or 12 years old,
in a class taught by Mme Delbert-Février (a former student of Marguerite Long and
Robert Casadesus) at the Conservatory in Nice. Some of her students were older
andmore advanced than I was, and I heard themplay pieces like
Jardins sous la pluie,
Poissons d’or, Reflets dans l’eau, Feux d’artifice
, etc. I talk about my “real” encounter,
because in my early classes at the Conservatory I had already played the
Mazurka
and heard a friend on
Le petit nègre
, pieces that made no impression on me. And
then, suddenly, something extraordinary happened to the young pianist that I was,
essentially still immersed in a classical repertory. I had never imagined that anyone
could produce on a piano the sounds that I was hearing for the first time. It was
literally magical; I was fascinated. My professor wanted me to watch when she
was working with older students: listening to the pieces I just mentioned put me
in a trance, particularly
Feux d’artifice
. I was envious of those who managed to play
this work, and couldn’t wait until I could do it myself. It happened fairly quickly,
because within one year, one year and a half, my professor allowed me to take it
on. But just before this, I had started to work on
Ce qu’à vu le vent d’ouest
, which was
my first“big” Debussy.