Walter Gieseking, though German, was born in the French city of Lyon and is admired above all as a brilliant and entrancingly perceptive interpreter of Debussy and Ravel. "He created a sound world in this repertoire that had no precedent, except perhaps in the composers' imaginations," wrote Gramophone, while the New York Times has said that: "His playing, though focused and rhythmically exact, proves that deep concentration does not have to be intense... There is never a sense of strain or tension; everything is natural and full of character."