Debussy: Preludes Livre II La Mer (Alexander Melnikov) Alexander Melnikov is among those pianists increasingly committed to playing the works of the past on the instruments from which they came into being (or could have done so). Thus, it is on an Érard - a 'period' piano - that he performs the second book of Debussy's Préludes, and with the help of Olga Pashchenko, the composer's extraordinary transcription of La Mer.