Jean-Philippe Rameau - Suite in D major (Pièces de Clavessin 1724)

Composer: Jean-Philippe Rameau (25 September 1683 -- 12 September 1764)
Performer: Grigori Sokolov (piano)
Year of recording: 2012 (Live in Tonhalle Zürich, Switzerland)

Suite in D major/Re major, from "Pièces de clavecin avec une méthode sur la mécanique des doigts", for harpsichord, written in 1724.

00:00 - Les Tendres Plaintes (Rondeau)
03:24 - Les Niais de Sologne
--------05:27 - Premier Double des Niais
--------07:05 - Deuxième Double des Niais
08:55 - Les Soupirs (Tendrement)
14:18 - La Joyeuse (Rondeau)
15:18 - La Follette (Rondeau)
17:38 - L'Entretien des Muses
24:43 - Les Tourbillons (Rondeau)
26:57 - Les Cyclopes (Rondeau)
30:49 - Le Lardon (Menuet)
31:53 - La Boiteuse

The second suite in the 1724 collection of pieces for harpsichord, the D major suite, could almost be called "themes from the classics" insofar as it replaces the traditional dance movements with illustratively titled movements. The mixture includes tunes derived from Rameau's theater works -- "L'Entretien des Muses" from Les fêtes d'Hébé, "Les tendre plaints" and "Sarabande" from Zoroastre, "Les nais de Sologne" with doubles (variations) from Dardanus, and others, such as the popular Les Indes Galantes [uploaded on this channel]. The French rondeau is favored in five of the 12 movements. The effect is that of a finely proportioned, and by no means a random, group of divertissements. Rameau's raids on his own melodies are not particularly significant in the light of these sparkling keyboard transformations, though they were noticed by one contemporary critic who drew a caricature of the composer surrounded by harpsichord pieces marked "for use in new operas."

These pieces were originally written for the clavecimble, in this recording they are played on the grand piano by G. Sokolov; his 'clavecimble-like playing' of these pieces on the piano shows that it can make perfect sense to play harpsichord pieces like this on the piano if they're handled as well as they are here by Sokolov.