Rameau: Keyboard Suites [Import]

Jean-Phillipe Rameau (Composer), Angela Hewitt (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Angela Hewitt
• Composer: Jean-Phillipe Rameau
• Audio CD (February 13, 2007)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Hyperion UK
• ASIN: B000KGGHTM
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #156,272 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Allemande (Suite in E minor - Pieces de clavecin)

2. Courante

3. Gigue en rondeau I

4. Gigue en rondeau II

5. Le rappel des oiseaux

6. Rigaudons I and II

7. Museete edn rondeau

8. Tambourin

9. La villageoise

10. Les tricotets (Suite in G minor-nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin)

11. L'indifferente

12. Menuets I and II

13. la poule

14. Les triolets

15. Les sauvages

16. L'enharmonique

17. L'egiptienne

18. Allemande (Suite in A minor - Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin)

19. Courante

20. Sarabande

See all 30 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Rameau wrote over 60 short pieces for solo harpsichord, most of them grouped into three collections. Angela Hewitt, acclaimed for her recordings of Bach, Ravel and Couperin, plays three Suites drawn from those collections. They include 24 pieces in a well-filled disc that makes a strong case for playing Rameau on the piano. Many, like the Courant of the Suite in E minor, encompass the typically French melding of elegance with rhythmic precision, Tambourin, from the same Suite, is one of Rameau’s popular works, an infectious, bouncy dance played by Hewitt with sly touches of rubato that make you sorry it's so short. The final two Suites on the disc comprise Rameau's last published collection and, as Hewitt writes in her excellent booklet notes, exhibit greater richness and drama. They also include witty pieces, such as La poule, with its pecking figures mimicking the chicken of the title. Works like L'enharmonique were adventurous for their time and place, with harmonic shocks, quick mood changes, and an expressive pause. The Suite in A minor offers more obvious virtuoso elements, such as hand-crossing to give the illusion of three hands at work and, in the Courante, complex rhythms and counterpoint. Hewitt plays it all with lucid ornamentation, precise articulation, and apt tempos. Unless you're allergic to Rameau played on the modern piano, this CD is a delight. -- Dan Davis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rameau on Piano, February 2, 2008

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rameau: Keyboard Suites (Audio CD)

The great French composer Jean-Phillipe Rameau (1683-1760) was a contemporary of Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti, but his music remains less-known than that of these masters. Rameau wrote a treatise on harmony and, after the age of 50, a long series of operas. He composed music for the keyboard at three periods of his life, early works in 1706, followed by suites composed in 1724 and revised in 1731, and a latter group of suites in 1729-1730. This recording includes Rameau's suite in E minor, from 1724 and the final two suites from 1729 in G and A minor.

Rameau's keyboard music was composed for the harpsichord. I wanted to hear this recording of Rameau on the piano by Angela Hewitt because I love Rameau and have been greatly impressed by Ms. Hewitt. I had ambitions of trying to learn some Rameau myself on the piano (I don't play the harpsichord) and wanted to hear it beautifully played. And I wanted to compare the music as performed on the two instruments.

As my fellow Amazon reviewers have noted, this reading on the piano does not replace Rameau on the harpsichord. The earlier instrument has a timbre, a sway, and a linearity that the piano cannot duplicate. With that qualification at the outset, this remains a wonderful recording. When one plays music of this era on the piano, -- Scarlatti, for example, -- it is crucial to remember that the piano is not a harpsichord and that the music must be interpreted using the resources available on the piano rather than attempting to make the piano sound like a harpsichord. Hewitt does so masterfully in her performance of Rameau. She plays with a fluid, legato touch that would be difficult to duplicate on the harpsichord. Equally important, she uses the full dynamic range of the piano to interpret the music in a way that would not be possible on the harpsichord. She uses the pedal lightly and she is able to bring the ever-present and difficult ornamentation in this music to life on the piano. This recording consists of beautiful music-making and offers Rameau in an idiomatic and revelatory reading that should not be faulted simply because it is performed on a modern instrument. Rameau himself noted explicity that many of his harpsichord pieces, such as the chamber-music "Pieces de Clavecin" could be performed by various combinations of instruments, or by a solo instrument. He would have adored Ms. Hewitt.

Rameau's keyboard music is a combination of the dance music of the earlier French baroque together with various character or genre pieces that were also used extensively by Couperin. The earliest work on this recording, the suite in E minor includes a variety of French dance music, including an allemande, courante, gugue,rigadoun, and a tender and lyrical musette. The dance selections also feature a famous Tamborin, a rhythmic dance that would have been performed as a solo by a dancer with tamborine in hand. The genre pieces include "La rappel des oiseaux" which depicts a convocation of birdshe " and a conluding piece "La villagoise" , a flowing, quiet work in the form of a rondeau.

The remaining two suites include more genre music. The suite in g minor features a work called "La Poule" (no relation to the Haydn symphony with this name) which depicts a contrast between agression and sadness and the poetic "Les triolets". The g minor suite also includes a harmonically daring piece called "L'enharmonique") in which Rameau shows, in a slow, meditative work, how one note on the keyboard can be interpreted alternatively as the basis for two separate keys (c-sharp and d-flat). "Les Sauvages" is Rameau's interpretation of a dance performed by American Indians who had performed in Paris, and the suite concludes with "L'egiptienne" which has been described by one critic as displaying "le lyrisme furieux."

The final work on this CD, the suite in A minor combines the best of dance and genre pieces. Its dance highlights include a lengthy, complex opening allemande. The genre pieces include a Scarlatti-like piece with much hand-crossing, "The three hands", together with two contrasting portraits of women, "Fanfarinette" with its charm and lightness and "La Triomphante." The A minor suite concludes with an extended gavotte and series of variations (doubles) which are in the style of Handel and which take the listener from a simple lyrical theme to music of ever-expanding power and force.

Angela Hewitt wrote the liner notes for this album. This recording includes beautiful pianism and compelling readings of Rameau.

Robin Friedman

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Muscianship of the highest order, July 24, 2007

By 

Eric A. Politzer (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rameau: Keyboard Suites (Audio CD)

I must admit that I have not heard the Alexandre Tharaud recording of this music. If it is in fact so vastly superior to Hewitt's interpretations, then I think it would be so painfully beautiful that I would not be able to listen to more than short bits at a time. I find the Hewitt to be immensely satisfying on so many levels. And, yes, I generally prefer hearing Baroque keyboard music on the piano, however much I also appreciate the harpsichord. For me, Hewitt draws out so much humanity in these works -- humor, whimsy, tenderness, and even soulfulness that I find these pieces revealing every time I listen to them. Then there is the playfulness and virtuosity that Hewitt brings to Rameau that makes them delightful on simply musical terms. As with the Couperin, I return to this disc time and time again and am rewarded greatly with each visit.

19 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unremarkable Rameau, March 22, 2007

By 

Stephen Ross Pierce "Stephen Pierce" (Cincinnati, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rameau: Keyboard Suites (Audio CD)

I am no period instrument purist and truly feel that those listeners out there who are should stay away from discs like these. Yes Rameau was not written for the piano but his keyboard music can sound marvellous on it in the right hands. Hewitt is an intelligent artist and there is much that is very good here but a lot of the playing is rather pedestrian I am afraid. When compared to Alexandre Tharaud's disc of similar repertoire for Harmonia Mundi, Hewitt's performances come up glaringly short. That said, Tharaud's is a quite extraordinary disc and one that any serious fan of fine piano playing should own.