Star piano-duo team Louis Lortie and Helene Mercier are at their most eloquently beguiling in this delectable programme of Debussy originals and arrangements. Right from the beginning, one can sense Debussy’s pride in being a French composer, as Lortie and Mercier reveal delicate shades of Bizet and Delibes in the early Andante cantabile. They also relish the Petite Suite’s piquant flavourings of Massenet and Chabrier. By the time we reach the dawn of the 20th century and La Mer, Debussy is very much his own man. Here, Lortie and Mercier achieve a remarkable degree of textural and harmonic luminescence, savouring innumerable subtle details normally submerged under orchestral washes of sound. Finest of all are the Épigraphes Antiques, pointillist miniatures that exemplify the composer’s late style at its most enigmatic.