Les tendres plaintes (for Piano Solo) as played by Víkingur Ólafsson

“For me, Rameau is up there with Handel, Scarlatti, and second only to Bach,” says Ólafsson. “It is simply genius keyboard writing.” His new album ‘Debussy Rameau’ juxtaposes Rameau’s music with that of Debussy, describing it as a “dialogue” between the two composers. He said that together they “defeat time and space with music”. What follows Debussy’s tender apologies on the album are Rameau’s tender complaints in ‘Les Tendres Plaintes’ from his Suite in D. In fact, tenderness was also the word evoked by Debussy to describe what he admired so deeply in Rameau – “Delicate and charming tenderness”, to be exact. Watch Víkingur Ólafsson performing Jean-Philippe Rameau’s ‘Les tendres plaintes’.“Ólafsson’s interpretations inhabit a unique, distinct and extraordinary world all their own.” – Gramophone