Composer of the Week: Rameau

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An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764): A Dream Realised

A Dream Realised

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), A Dream Realised

Donald Macleod marks the Tour de France cycle race with French composers throughout July.

Donald Macleod begins a month focused on French composers, in honour of July's Tour de France cycle race. Today, Rameau astounds Parisian audiences with his debut opera.

Donald Macleod begins three weeks focused on French composers, in honour of this month’s ‘Tour de France’ cycle race.  This week, Donald introduces us to Jean-Philippe Rameau who astounded Parisian audiences with his debut opera, "Hippolyte et Aricie".

"I have followed the theatre since the age of twelve", so said Rameau to a young composer who wrote to him for advice. It's an intriguing insight into a man who didn't produce his first opera until the age of fifty. Quite why it took him that long isn't clear. Up to that point he had been a church musician, following in his father's footsteps, holding a succession of posts mainly in the South of France. He also taught and established himself as a theoretician of some note. A brief, early sojourn in Paris, a mecca for any theatrical hopeful, ended abruptly when he was still in his twenties. It wasn't until he returned to Paris in 1723 that Rameau was able to start writing music for theatrical entertainments, at first for the popular Fairs, and then finally in 1733 for the Paris Opera.  In the midst of constant cultural rows over the merits of French and Italian operatic style, Rameau flourished as a theatre composer. At one point he was so successful the management of the Paris Opera decreed no more than two of his works should be mounted per season, to allow other composers to get a look in! He completed his final opera, a masterpiece, Les Boréades in 1763, the year before he died at the age of eighty. Across the week Donald Macleod focuses on this remarkable period in Rameau's life, from the first of his theatrical works to his last.

It was lucky break for the newcomer when Rameau persuaded an established poet, Abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin to write the text for his first opera. Pellegrin was a highly respected figure in the opera world and being able to add his name to the frontispiece of the score shored up Rameau's credentials.

Overture to Naïs 
Attaquons les cieux  
Orfeo Orchestra 
Purcell Choir 
György Vashegyi, conductor 

Naïs 
Prologue: Lancez, lancez la foudre 
Orfeo Orchestra 
Purcell Choir 
György Vashegyi, conductor 

Achante et Céphise, Act 1  
Premier et deuxième air en movement de chaconne vive   
La Grande Écurie et Les Ambassadeurs 
Alexis Kossenko, conductor 

Les Boréades 
"Un horizon serein" 
Caroline Weynants, soprano, Séphire
Collegium 1704
Václav Luks

La poule (Suite in G minor) 
Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin 
Justin Taylor, harpsichord 

Hippolyte et Aricie, Act 3 
Quels biens! 
Laurent Naouri, bass, Thésée
Les Arts Florissants 
William Christie, director 

Hippolyte et Aricie, Act IV, Sc 1 to 3 
Ah! Faut-il en un jour, perdre tout ce que j'aime! 
C'en est donc fait, cruel, rien n'arrête vos pas 
Nous allons nous jurer une immortelle foi 
Faisons partout voler nos traits 
Anna-Maria Panzarella, soprano, Aricie
Mark Padmore, tenor, Hippolyte  
Les Arts Florissants 
William Christie, director 

Producer: Johannah Smith

Composer of the Week: Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod's focuses on the theatrical works of Jean-Philippe Rameau.

Donald Macleod's focuses on the theatrical works of French composer of Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764).

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