Rameau / Respighi: Airs Galants, Renaissance & Baroque-Inspired Music For Piano – Due Di Duo

This recording invites to the discovery of Renaissance and Baroque works, transcribed for piano four-hands in different historical periods and according to different aesthetics. On the one hand, the transcription by Léon Roques (1839-1923) of Airs de Ballet from Les Indes Galantes, an opéra-ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764); on the other hand, the Antiche Danze ed Arie per Liuto (first and second suites) by Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936), freely transcribed from 16th-and 17th-century original pieces for lute. According to the catalogue of Respighi’s works, only the first two suites out of the three existing ones were arranged for piano four-hands by the composer himself from their orchestral version and published respectively in 1919 and 1923. The performers’ predilection for the Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, as well as the performance challenges produced by such ‘ancient’ compositions in their ‘modern’ transcriptions, intrigued and prompted them to engage in an in-depth interpretive research, especially with regard to the specificity of musical writing of the past in relation to current instrumental practices.