Angela Hewitt - Jean-Philippe Rameau Keyboard Suites (2007)

Angela Hewitt - Jean-Philippe Rameau: Keyboard Suites (2007)
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue&Log) ~ 256 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 192 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67597 | Time: 01:18:16

Rameau on the piano? It's not altogether unheard of - there were a handful of classic recordings made by Robert Casadesus back in 1952 - but, despite many recordings of Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti on the piano in the digital age, there's been precious little Rameau on the piano until this Angela Hewitt recording of three complete suites from 2006. By choosing the Suite in E minor from the Pièces de clavecin of 1731 plus the Suites in G minor and A minor from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin, Hewitt has for the most part stayed away from the more evocatively titled works and stuck to the standard stylized Baroque dance forms of the allemande, courante, and gigue. Justly celebrated for her cool and clean Bach recordings, this strategy works well for Hewitt. Without seeming to resort to the sustain or the mute pedal, she floats Rameau's lines and melodies, and without seeming to exaggerate the accents or dynamics, she gives Rameau's rhythms a wonderful sense of lift. In the deliberately evocative movements from the G minor Suite - "La poule," "Les sauvages," and especially "L'egiptienne" - Hewitt seems to bring less to the music - her interpretations are remarkably straight - and to get less out of it - her performances are remarkably bland. Still, as an alternative to Rameau on the harpsichord, Rameau on the piano works well enough to merit an occasional listening, and Hewitt's will more than likely remain the Rameau on the piano of choice for years to come. Hyperion's sound is warm, round, full, and deep.

Review by James Leonard, Allmusic.com

For Rameau on the piano, Angela Hewitt proves just as gorgeous in her realizations as Tzimon Barto on Ondine, but with a million times the intelligence, stylistic awareness, and taste. Helped by her Fazioli concert grand's bright edge, Hewitt demonstrates that the nooks and crannies of Rameau's ornamentation not only work on the piano but also benefit from the instrument's capacity for dynamic nuances. Hewitt's varied articulation and tonal shading arise from the music's dance origins and are never "pianistic" for their own sake. Sometimes Hewitt may taper a phrase to slightly precious effect or time a cadence with just a smidgen of archness, but her glorious rhythmic sense and crisply centered trills and mordents offer vivid compensation.

And if harpsichordists can shift registrations, why not Hewitt? I love how her repeats in Le rappel des oiseaux tweet and twitter an octave higher than in the score. Hewitt also discreetly enhances textures by placing certain bass notes down the octave. All told, this is the finest Rameau piano disc since Marcelle Meyer's classic 1953 cycle, and I look forward to more. As usual, Hewitt's annotations are well researched and reader-friendly, while Hyperion's engineering is vivid and detailed, if slightly bass shy (I have not heard the SACD version).

Review by Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Hewitt complements her continuing series of Couperin's keyboard music with a disc devoted to his younger French contemporary. Rameau's keyboard suites contain some of his best known music - vividly pictorial movements such as La Poule and L'Egyptienne, both from the G minor suite, and the Tambourin and Le Rappel des Oiseaux, from the E minor, have appeared in countless instrumental arrangements - and all predate the series of stage works begun in 1733 on which his reputation mainly rests and in which some of the pieces are recycled.

Hewitt clearly relishes the colour and rhythmic energy of these dance sequences; her performances have a wonderfully fluid stylishness, with scrupulous ornamentation that never seems self-consciously correct, and they are founded upon a willingness to use the full tonal resources of a modern concert grand in a way that seems to make utterly irrelevant any question of what is historically or musicologically "correct" in playing this music.

Review by Andrew Clements, The Guardian





Tracklist:

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)

Suite in E minor
01. I. Allemande (3:35)
02. II. Courante (1:49)
03. III. Gigue en rondeau I (1:29)
04. IV. Gigue en rondeau II (2:44)
05. V. Le rappel des oiseaux (2:37)
06. VI. Rigudons I and II (2:21)
07. VII. Musette en rondeau (2:46)
08. VIII. Tambourin (1:30)
09. IX. La villageoise (2:43)

Suite in G minor
10. I. Les tricotets (1:49)
11. II. L'indifferente (1:55)
12. III. Menuets I and II (3:32)
13. IV. La poule (4:54)
14. V. Les triolets (4:47)
15. VI. Les sauvages (1:53)
16. VII. L'enharmonique (6:49)
17. VIII. L'egiptienne (2:46)

Suite in A minor
18. I. Allemande (5:05)
19. II. Courante (3:58)
20. III. Sarabande (2:19)
21. IV. Les trois mains (5:10)
22. V. Fanfarinette (2:52)
23. VI. La triomphante (1:31)
24. VII. Gavotte (1:41)
25. VIII. - Double 1 (0:59)
26. VIII. - Double 2 (0:59)
27. VIII. - Double 3 (0:59)
28. VIII. - Double 4 (0:52)
29. VIII. - Double 5 (0:52)
30. VIII. - Double 6 (1:01)
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