Sophie Yates - Rameau: Pieces de Clavecin Vol. 2 (2004)

When was the last time you saw the Marquis de Sade mentioned in the liner notes to an album of Baroque harpsichord music? Sophie Yates does just that in her notes to her Rameau Pièces de clavecin: Vol. 2 album, and better still, she makes you buy the comparison. She quotes Rameau himself, buttering up his audiences for one of the wilder moves in the famed "L'enharmonique," from the Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin of 1728: "The harmony that creates this effect has by no means been thrown in haphazardly; it is based on logic and has the sanction of nature herself; it is the ingredient most savored by the connoisseur...," Rameau wrote. "Shades of Rameau's near-contemporary, the Marquis de Sade," notes Yates! (It's commendable that she handles the note-writing herself, by the way.) Included on this sequel to Yates' other fine albums of Rameau's keyboard music are the two Nouvelles suites, the festive La dauphine of 1747, and solo keyboard versions (something explicitly okayed by Rameau himself) of the Pièces de clavecin en concerts of 1741. Yates has rescued Rameau's keyboard music from a tradition of interpretation that emphasizes its academic side. Her playing is exquisitely balanced between the density of Rameau's music (he is Bach's equal in this respect), its pictorial aspect (carrying on the tradition of Couperin), and its occasional but essential propensity toward exoticism and shock. The counterparts to "L'enharmonique" in the Nouvelles suites are two little pieces entitled "Les Sauvages" and "L'Egyptienne," fascinating representations of the Other in the circumscribed language of Baroque keyboard music. Yates is a powerful player, and if you can get yourself attuned to the closed-hothouse vibe of the French High Baroque, the album's a real thrill ride. And Chandos' sound engineers have done an especially fine job with the solo harpsichord here. Relax and enjoy. -- James Manheim