L E O N O R   D I L L

The idea to write a piano solo transcription out of Claude Debussy’s orchestral work “Jeux” came to my mind when I first was asked to play it at the 2017 Davos Music Festival. When addressing the study of this musical piece, I found out that the only available piano score, the one of the Durand Musical Publisher, consisted of an abbreviated version that Debussy had written to help the choreographer and dancer Vaslav Nijinsky with his rehearsals. Therefore, and in order to rewrite a piano version that would include missing musical elements, I decided: (i) to document myself on the origins of the orchestral composition; (ii) to analyze the orchestral score; (iii) to listen and compare two audio interpretations – the Cleveland Orchestra-one, directed by Pierre Boulez, and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra directed by Michael Tilson Thomas; (iv) to view Nijinsky’s choreography. These procedures allowed me to grasp not only the aesthetic significance of the original work but different formal aspects of its composition that needed to be transcribed. With the aid of Pierre Boulez’ pertinent comments on the orchestral score of “Jeux”, I have endeavored therefore to emphasize musical elements in my piano transcription that, in my view, allow to preserve the extremely delicate and elegant character of this Debussy’s latest musical work.