Petite Suite (1889)

No one has written more enchantingly for piano duet than Debussy in the Petite Suite – which, considering that he was in his twenties at the time and scarcely known as a composer, is a remarkable achievement. En bateau (In a boat) is particularly magical in the impression it gives of floating serenity in the top two hands poised over gently rippling figuration in the other two. The first player initiates a more vigorous middle section which engages the participation of the second – but only up to the point where the latter expresses a preference for the easy motion of the opening and actually turns back on an eddy of whole tones to restore the melodic serenity.

The other movements are not quite as original as En bateau but are scarcely less delightful for that. In Cortège a Bizet-like miniature march gives way to the capricious rhythms of the scherzando middle section and makes its return by way of an extravagant modulation. Not without some influence from Delibes, the Menuet makes delicate use of an ancient mode in its slightly melacholy evocation of old-world charm. Ballet, a tribute to Chabrier perhaps, ingeniously dissolves an exuberant dance in 2/4 time into a waltz in 3/8, recalls the duple-time material and ends by converting it, alongside a brief memory of the waltz, into triple time.

Although the Petite Suite is now far more familiar in the orchestral version made, with the composer’s complete approval, by his friend and colleague Henri Büsser in 1907, it remains a masterpiece of scoring for piano duet.