Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin, for harpsichord
Hommage à Rameau, for piano, CD 105/2 (L. 110/2)
Few artists have explored the avenues Alexandre Tharaud opens here, and what is novel is not just that Tharaud plays Rameau on the piano -- his inclusion of Debussy's Hommage à Rameau, from Images, Book I, reminds listeners that this has been done before -- but that he completely rethinks how to go about it. His Rameau playing cannot be described either as Romantic-pianistic or as historically oriented. Rather, Tharaud is informed but not restricted by historical performance approaches, with which he begins as a basis but ...
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Few artists have explored the avenues Alexandre Tharaud opens here, and what is novel is not just that Tharaud plays Rameau on the piano -- his inclusion of Debussy's Hommage à Rameau, from Images, Book I, reminds listeners that this has been done before -- but that he completely rethinks how to go about it. His Rameau playing cannot be described either as Romantic-pianistic or as historically oriented. Rather, Tharaud is informed but not restricted by historical performance approaches, with which he begins as a basis but to which he adds pianistic touches in a successful effort to get at the essence of Rameau as it has come down to listeners today. He adds judicious pedaling to replicate the limited but distinct resonance of the harpsichord, and he brings out the textures of individual pieces with pianistic articulation. The result is a performance that brings out the evocations intended by some of Rameau's movement titles; L'Égyptienne, from the Suite in G major of the Pièces de Clavecin, has no...
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