Pianist Víkingur
With his third solo recording for Deutsche Grammophon, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson establishes a fascinating musical connection between two French composers: Jean-Philippe Rameau and Claude Debussy. These two musical revolutionaries, separated by more than a century, are juxtaposed in a kaleidoscopic dialogue. Ólafsson discovered a treasure trove of rarely performed compositions in Rameau's piano works and recognized the surprising similarities with Debussy. While Rameau literally laid the foundations of French harmony in the Baroque era, Debussy discarded these concepts in the early 20th century. This innovative album alternates pieces from Rameau's 'Pièces de clavecin' with works from Debussy's 'Children's Corner' and 'Préludes'. A particular highlight of this endlessly listenable recording is Debussy's 'Hommage à Rameau', which symbolically honors the intellectual kinship of these two great French composers.