A treat for those who like classical piano

I’ll have to find Hewitt Rameau.  I’ve found her Bach to be generally good but somewhat uneven.

  @newbee so my first Rameau exposure was around 30 years ago when the Naxos label emerged with budget Classical CDs and greatly expanded the repertoire of previously unrecorded music, particularly Baroque.  There were a few albums of Harpsichord music that made me a Rameau convert, and later several suites of Ballet and incidental music from operas ( a lot of the aforementioned keyboard music reappeared here orchestrated).  I don’t remember the harpsichord player name and will have to check my shelves.  The playing is filled with gusto and the instrument sounds large and powerful, so Historically Informed Performance devotees may not like it, although the Orchestral suites are HIPP approved).

Mahler123, FWIW, I found I actually had the Olafsson CD hidden in a drawer. I listened to it again and I figured out why. When first heard I really didn’t connect. I just didn’t care for the juxtaposition of Debussy (which I love) and the Rameau which I didn’t know. When I relistened and focused on the Rameau I appreciated it more, perhaps more that the YouTube version, yet I still found his style a little metronomic compared to Beraia’s, whose performance is not available on CD (her discography is very limited). I suspect that Olafsson’s performance might sound a bit more as Rameau might have intended.

I’ve only recently (re)opened my mind to music that preceded Beethoven. Beatrice Rana’s Goldbergs did it for me and I love that one. I’ve always appreciated Haydn’s music for solo piano, but that’s about it.

I’m going to try gg107’s recommendation just to see if I might like some orchestral music (by Rameau).

BTW, not that it really impressed me musically speaking, but I just loved watching the playing techniques by Sokolov, Olafsson, and Beraia. The three bears come to mind. Sokolov just beating that poor piano the death, Olafsson treating it with respect, and Beraia just messaging the hell out of it (probably inaccurately). If that makes any sense. :-)