If you went through the playlist on my IPOD today I think that you would find that I have played more "tracks" by Rameau than any other single composer. I would never have predicted this even 10 years ago.
I don't recall hearing a note of Rameau's music all the way through school or university. We did cover Rameau a little in the history of music theory and also briefly in the history of opera. If any Rameau was played as an example I have not memory of it whatsoever - not that there would have been many recordings back in the 1970s which could have been used. I do remember looking at some Rameau scores, but didn't find anything of interest there. I found them too fragmentary to get my teeth into and all of the ornamentation very fussy.
The only real memory I have of Rameau is a conversation with one of my lecturers in the music library. He told me that they had a bit of spare money in the library fund - that dates it! - and that they were going to use it to expand the range of complete editions which we held. When he told me that the first priority was Rameau I can still recall my reaction, which was "why can't we get something more interesting". I also remembering reading revues of the Rameau revivals by the English Bach festival and wondering why on earth anybody would bother!
Even when I started to develop an interest in Handel Rameau was still a closed book. I can date my first real encounter fairly precisely. In an early issue of one of the CDs which started to be included with Gramophone magazine. John Elliot Gardiner was being interviewed about his musical experiences and he mentioned how Rameau had come to life for him when he started to work with original instruments. The musical extract chosen to illustrate this was the Entreé from Act IV of Les Boréades.
I was hooked! I immediately ordered the CD of the entire opera and never looked back. I think that I now have at least one recording of each of the operas which have been released on CD or DVD. I managed to get to a couple of concert performance of Les Boréades (including one at the Proms conducted by Simon Rattle which left an indelible impression) and two staged performances of Castor et Pollux.
In my next post I will try to explain a little just why I find Rameau so captivating. In the meantime here is the wonderful Chaconne which ends the opera Dardanus.
No comments:
Post a Comment