With this disc, Bennett Lerner embarks upon his survey of Claude Debussy’s complete music for piano- some 83 separate pieces that mark one of the great pianistic legacies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Included on this first volume are Book II of the Préludes, the Children’s Corner suite, and six other pieces, including the recently (2001) discovered Intermède, written in 1880. Bennett Lerner is well known as a performer of new music and has premiered music by composers including Aaron Copland, David Diamond, Irving Fine, Marc Blitzstein, Roy Harris, Paul Bowles, Samuel Barber and Virgil Thomson. Lerner’s primary teachers were the Chilean virtuoso Claudio Arrau, Arrau’s assistant, Rafael de Silva, the Cuban pedagogue German Diez, the American composer/pianist Robert Helps, and the Argentine virtuosa Arminda Canteros. Mr. Lerner has lived in Thailand since 1990 and is currently a lecturer in the Music Department of Payap University in Chiang Mai.

Also available on Bridge:
Complete Debussy Piano Music, Vol. I, Bennett Lerner, piano, BRIDGE 9211
Complete Debussy Piano Music, Vol. III, Bennett Lerner, piano, BRIDGE 9219