Ivano Leva & Marika Lombardi - Claude Debussy: La Cathédrale Transfiguré (2017)

The project “Debussy: la Cathédrale Transfigurée” is a tribute to the genius of the great French musician on the 100th anniversary of his death in 2018. A tribute having as its cornerstone the evoking fascination of the free improvisation: Debussy was devoted to it to seize the “colour” of the sound resonances that he called “the gift of the hearing”.

It is well known that La Cathédrale engloutie -the 10th prelude of the first volume of Préludes- is a piece inspired by the Breton legend of the Ys Cathedral: an island swallowed up by the sea as punishment for dissolute lifestyle of its princess Dahud, who surrendered to the flattery of the devil disguised as a young and attractive magician. This prelude, composed between December 1909 and February 1911, is one of the most famous and performed gems of the Debussy pianist repertoire. We can find the masterful use of both aesthetic and formal highly refined compositional techniques to create a narrative atmosphere.