Víkingur Ólafsson - Debussy · Rameau (Interview)

Fresh from his hugely acclaimed and multi-award-winning album Johann Sebastian Bach, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson’s third Deutsche Grammophon recording pairs works by two revolutionary French composers separated by a century and a half: Jean-Philippe Rameau and Claude Debussy.

Debussy is most often called an impressionist. “People get lost a little bit in sound for the sake of sound”, Ólafsson comments. But the composer was also “a real perfectionist… there is this incredibly refined structure at work.” Rameau, “the bad boy of the French baroque”, likewise combined a strong sense of structure with a fondness for breaking conventions: “He broke the rules and paved the way for new ideas, new creativity, new spontaneity.” What unites the two composers, Ólafsson comments, is “a kind of freedom and discipline, juxtaposed”.

The album 'Debussy · Rameau' alternates music by the two composers, creating an enthralling dialogue between them. Works are drawn from across both composers’ careers, with the Debussy selection including well-known miniatures such as La Fille aux cheveux de lin as well as the less familiar Prelude to La Damoiselle élue arranged for piano solo. Rameau’s works are mainly drawn from his Pièces de clavecin collections of between 1724 and 1741. One of the album’s centrepieces is Ólafsson’s own Rameau arrangement The Arts and the Hours.

Víkingur Ólafsson - Debussy · Rameau (Interview)

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#Piano #VíkingurÓlafsson #Debussy

[shaggyfeng]

I would listen to Víkingur talking about music all day long.

[김문석-rx]

He is the most sexy pianist all of the world! I want to see him🙏

[ketcketc]

Thank you so much for this interview.
Now I understood the reason you recorded these amazing 3 albums.
I cannot wait what is coming next!

[richardbenitez]

For some very odd reason musicians tend to be good at talking about a piece, compositions, etc. By contrast painters I find can not or refuse to speak well about their work. They have little to say. Weird.

[drzaeus]

What a shame that this mediocrity should be what comes up when you put the name ‘Rameau’ into Google.