Víkingur Ólafsson – Rameau: Le Rappel des Oiseaux

Víkingur Ólafsson himself describes his first encounter with Rameau’s “Le Rappel des Oiseaux“ as follows: “Debussy has been with me as far back as I can remember, but my first encounter with the keyboard music of Rameau was Emil Gilels’ 1951 recording of “Le Rappel des oiseaux”, which I came across during my student days in New York. I was immediately fascinated by the music and how well it lends itself to the modern piano, at least in Gilels’ noble rendition, with its layered textures and light and shades. But it wasn’t until the spring of 2019, as I waited (and waited and waited) for the birth of my first child that I finally had the chance, having cleared some weeks in my concert schedule, to sit down with all of Rameau’s published keyboard works and read through every one of them. A world of wonder revealed itself: ingenious works of remarkable diversity, rarely programmed or recorded on the modern instrument.“ Watch Víkingur Ólafsson peform Jean-Philippe Rameau