Rameau: Complete Keyboard Music, Vol. 2

Featuring

Stephen Gutman
Jean-Philippe Rameau

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Performer Biography

Stephen Gutman, the pianist on this recording, has a reputation as one of Britain's most creative performers of modern music and specializes in French Baroque keyboard repertoire on the modern piano.

Compositional Technique

In 'Les cyclopes', Rameau invented a new keyboard technique where the left hand passes over the right to play bass and treble alternately, demanding astonishing virtuosity.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Rameau conceived instrumental music primarily in terms of opera, dance, and the representation of non-musical objects, reflecting a deep influence from French aesthetics.

Critical Reception

Rameau's first opera, 'Hippolyte et Aricie' (1733), was met with hostility, and his second opera, 'Les Indes galantes', also received a mixed reception.

Composer Biography

Jean-Philippe Rameau, the composer, only began to establish a national reputation in France when he was almost 40 years old, after settling in Paris in 1722.

Compositional Technique

The piece 'Les niais de Sologne' by Rameau features a left-hand technique with rotation of the hand over the thumb, which was a new development in French keyboard publications at the time.

Composition History

Rameau's 1724 keyboard suite was his first to feature pieces with 'character' titles, moving away from traditional dance movements, a trend influenced by François Couperin.