Claude Debussy - La cathedrale engloutie (2013 recital)
245 views · Published 22 July 2013 · 4:47 · Indexed 20 September 2026
This is a video from my second solo piano recital, performed on July 14, 2013. This recital was a performance of preludes by Claude Debussy, and this piece is La cathedrale engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral), from Preludes, Book I. Apologies for the awkward camera angle - our piano is in the corner of the living room, so it's a bit difficult to film on a Flip camera in a way that can show the performer's hands and profile without the side wall getting in the way. This was the third piece I performed. I actually performed this piece in 2009 for my first solo recital, and I wanted to bring this piece back since it was well received. I have tried it at different tempi before, with different teachers in Indiana, and my teacher in California reminded me the week before this recital that this tempo is the proper one - even though some passages still feel twice as fast as they should be to me now. I still love the visuals from the story of the cathedral that emerges from the ocean and slowly appears out of the mist before disappearing again, and I have intended to perform the piece in such a way that the melody plays out like some church hymns I've heard.
