RAMEAU Pieces for Keyboard

Rameau follows Bach for British pianist Crossland

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Jean-Philippe Rameau

Genre:

Instrumental

Label: Signum

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 70

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: SIGCD278

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Premier Livre de Pièces de Clavecin Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Jill Crossland, Piano
Pieces de Clavecin avec une methode sur la mecanique des Doigts, Movement: Suite in E Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Jill Crossland, Piano
Pieces de Clavecin avec une methode sur la mecanique des Doigts, Movement: Suite in D Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Jill Crossland, Piano
Rameau’s harpsichord pieces can work wonderfully well on the modern concert grand, as Marcelle Meyer proved to magical effect, not to mention modern-day champions such as Angela Hewitt and Alexandre Tharaud. Jill Crossland’s intelligent, stylish, tasteful, tonally resourceful and beautifully recorded Rameau interpretations take their place alongside these luminaries. Her playing throughout the nine pieces of the Premier livre in A minor that open the disc consistently delights. Following a sensitively timed opening section, Crossland makes an easy transition into the fleet ending of the Prélude and engages in gentle yet shapely dialogues between hands in the following Allemandes. Both the Courante and Gavotte manage to be rhythmically assertive and debonair at the same time. Regarding the Suite in E, it’s impossible to stake out a clear-cut preference for either Crossland or Hewitt (Hyperion, 2/07), any more than one can choose between apples and oranges. Crossland plays the Gigue en Rondeau with a lightness, delicacy and freedom that contrasts to Hewitt’s relatively stricter metrics and stronger bass underpinning. Similarly, in ‘Le rappel des oiseaux’, Crossland depicts Rameau’s aviary with playful alterations of voicings and accents, whereas Hewitt’s darker, more dynamic touch and octave transpositions suggest more foreboding flying objects. By contrast, Crossland’s rendition of the familiar ‘Tambourin’ movement boasts more vivacity and backbone than Hewitt’s more understated traversal, although Hewitt’s solid left-hand underpinning provides a lilting, almost Brahmsian anchor to the concluding Rondeau that’s quite different from Crossland’s dulcet, melody-oriented reading.

Crossland’s elegance and subtle tonal gradations particularly shine in the Suite in D; listen to how she appears to throw the introspective phrases of ‘Les soupirs’ away while moving over the bar-lines, or the sense of weightless propulsion she generates in the churning rhythms of ‘Les tourbillons’. This is Crossland’s finest CD yet, and one hopes that she’ll set down Rameau’s remaining keyboard works in due course.

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