Aesthetic and political turmoil have a dramatic effect on Jean-Philippe Rameau's later years.
Controversy was never far away from Jean-Philippe Rameau. He lived a long life, amid the lively cultural and aesthetic debates that erupted in France after music was freed from Jean-Baptiste Lully's artistic monopoly. An octogenarian at his death in 1764, Rameau was by then a prosperous and successful opera composer. Unlike his contemporaries, Bach, Handel and Scarlatti, Rameau was something of a later starter. Born in Dijon, he spent the first part of his life in the provinces, working in relative obscurity. He didn't make his name until the age of 50 when he conquered the stage in Paris. What followed was a remarkable burst of creativity, amounting to about a hundred works, in addition to the prolific publication of original theoretical writing.

In this final part of his survey Donald Macleod is rejoined by Rameau expert Graham Sadler. Together they look at the ways in which the changing nature of cultural life impinge on Rameau's theoretical and composing interests. Show less