Zoltán Kocsis (1952 - 2016) was a Hungarian pianist who made his name on the Philips label with a stellar cycle of the piano works of his compatriot, Béla Bartók. What some listeners may not know is Kocsis also recorded a great series of various Sergei Rachmaninov piano works (incl. the piano concerti) and, a personal favorite and the composer question in this review, Claude Debussy.I’ll go ahead and say it this 2-CD set gets 5-stars for the performances and the audio quality. Kocsis brings an adventurous, open-minded yet determined approach to Debussy’s piano music. He doesn’t bath in the ‘Impressionist haze’ that seems to surround many other pianists’ recordings. This isn’t to say these performances don’t have a great atmosphere to them, because they do, but this isn’t what Debussy is about all the time. Sometimes Debussy can have a playful, Neoclassical twist to the music. I’m not going to go through all of the works here, but, along with Paul Jacobs’ incredible recording on Nonesuch, this “Préludes” shoots right to the top of the ladder. Kocsis’ whole conception of the work seems to be like a massive canvas with a design that’s already in place and he simply adds, or fills in, each color as he sees fit. “Children’s Corner” also receives one of the finest performances I’ve heard on disc (sorry Michelangeli!). The other pieces in this box set should not be viewed as mere ‘filler’ as these are all miniatures that review different facets of Debussy’s piano oeuvre outside the larger works. The audio quality is superb and the piano sound (probably from a Steinway as I haven’t looked at the liner notes) is warm and sonorous.It appears this 2-CD set is out-of-print in it’s original incarnation, which is a shame, because there’s some good background information about the works and several wonderful black-and-white photos of the composer. I really hope that this set gets reissued in it’s original incarnation and not the current one which can be found here:https://www.amazon.fr/Debussy-Préludes-Childrens-Corner-Coffret/dp/B007FOV0LM/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1523841584&sr=1-8&keywords=Debussy+KocsisWhatever incarnation you can find this set in, just buy it! This is some of the best Debussy piano playing I’ve heard outside of the tremendous recordings of Paul Jacobs and Michelangeli. Also, look for Kocsis’ other Debussy recordings (also on Philips), which are probably easier to find then this 2-CD set.