Jean-Philippe Rameau: The Complete Keyboard Music, Volume Two
Rameau was one of the great composers for the keyboard. But because pianists have not adopted his harpsichord music as they have that of the other great names of the Baroque – Bach, Handel and Scarlatti – his stature as one of the world’s major keyboard composers is not as fully acknowledged. This series of three CDs underlines that claim by presenting all his keyboard music on the piano: the familiar suites, a number of discoveries and arrangements by himself and his contemporaries.
Stephen Gutman, piano
Listen To This Recording:
-
Les Indes Galantes (c. 1736)
- Ouverture
- Air polonois
- Musette en rondeau
- Menuets I & II
- Air gratieux pour les Amours
- Air pour les Amants qui suivent Bellone et pour les amantes qui t‚chent de les retenir
- Premier air pour les Bostangis
- Deuxième air pour les Bostangis
- Air des Fleurs
- Air tendre pour la Rose
- Gavotte pour les Fleurs
- Air pour Borée et la Rose
- Air pour Zéphire
- Air vif pour Zéphire et la Rose
- Gavotte vive pour les Fleurs
- Marche des Persans
- Air pour les Esclaves Africains
- Rigaudons I & II
- Tambourins I & II
- Vivement
- Air grave pour les Incas du Pérou
- Loure en rondeau
- Rondeau gratieux
- Gavottes I & II
- Les tendres plaintes
- Les niais de Sologne
- Premier double des Niais
- Deuxième double des Niais
- Les soupirs
- La joyeuse
- La follette
- L’entretien des Muses
- Les tourbillons
- La boiteuse
- Le lardon
- Les cyclopes
- La pantomime
- L’indiscrète
- La Rameau
- Gavotte from Dardanus (late 18th c.) [transc. Balbastre]
- Menuet en rondeau (1724)
Suite No. 3 in D minor/major (1724)
Pièces de clavecin en concerts: Concert No. 4 in B flat major (1741)
MusicWeb International :
‘I got out my copy of volume 1 recently – it was easy to find, which proves that it gets played quite frequently and hasn’t disappeared into the limbo of lost CDs at the back of the cupboard and was just as pleased with it as when I first reviewed it. That goes equally for its successor. Roll on the third and final volume – let’s not have to wait another four years, please.’
—Brian Wilson, MusicWeb International
Classics Today :
‘…Toccata Classics’ engineering captures Gutman’s warm timbre in an ambience akin to an intimate room suitable for both instrument and repertoire. A lovely disc in every way, and I look forward to this cycle’s imminent completion.’
—Jed Distler, Classics Today
Fanfare Magazine :
‘Gutman does a creative and rather exacting job of performing the often tortuous lines of the huge Indes galantes suite. The use of ornamentation is precise and replicates that of the original in a way that does not detract from the sometimes dramatic and lyrical lines of the work. His tempos are suitably variable, emphasizing the various sentiments and descriptive movements. […]
the disc with a modern instrument has a certain resonance for everyone else, and this is largely due to Gutman’s sensitive playing. One might even suggest that Rameau himself would have been pleased with the result, and certainly pianists who wonder if his harpsichord pieces could ever make a successful transition to the pianoforte will find that this disc proves that they indeed can. Given the nice initial volume and this one, the third in the set should prove extremely useful.’
—Bertil van Boer, Fanfare Magazine September/October 2013