Claude Debussy's more well-known works are more beautiful than awesome, but he wrote plenty of works in the latter category as well.
- Clair de lune
from the Suite bergamasque is one of the most recognizable classical pieces of all time (here is an especially charming arrangement for violin and piano). The other movements from the suite - the flamboyant Prelude, the skittish Menuet, and the flighty Passepied - may be less familiar but are still well worth a listen. - La Mer, a suite of three orchestral sketches, is one of Debussy's most captivating works for orchestra. The tense third sketch, "Dialogue du vent et de la mer" ("Dialogue of the wind and the sea"), is a highlight.
- Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun is perhaps Debussy's most familiar orchestral composition, drawing the listener in from the enigmatic opening flute solo through to the serene conclusion.
- L'isle Joyeuse is a delightful musical portrait from beginning to end.
- Pour le piano frames a haunting Sarabande with a tense Prelude rich in parallel fifths and block chords and a Toccata of seemingly boundless energy and exhilaration.
- Though Debussy may have resented being labelled an Impressionist composer, his two sets of Images for solo piano paint extremely vivid, if slightly abstract, musical portraits in the same vein as the works of Manet, Monet, and co. The crown for awesome goes to Mouvement, the third "image" in the first suite, a harmonically adventurous musical depiction of incessant motion.
