NDR/ARTE

Jean Rondeau and the Harpsichord

For over a century, an entire musical epoch, the harpsichord received little attention. Jaen Rondeau is a stroke of luck for the instrument and its renaissance. The 30-year-oldch Frenchman is one of the most exciting harpsichordists of our time and brings new splendor to the great harpsichord literature. In the concert portrait “Jean Rondeau and the Harpsichord” the audience will not only get to know the so called “philosopher at the keyboard”, but also his instrument.

Rock star of the harpsichord, philosopher at the keyboard, enfant terrible – Jean Rondeau has been given many headings. And indeed, it is a small revolution that the young Frenchman has been pushing for a few years. New CDs are being released at a rapid pace and millions of people are clicking on his YouTube videos. One of them is the famous Concerto in D minor for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is precisely this concerto that forms the musical thread of the music documentary. “It’s full of surprises. A total lot happens, and it has an extraordinarily intense dramaturgy. It’s probably this intensity that appeals to the people who listen to it – and play it”, enthuses Jean Rondeau. This can be experienced in the concert portrait with one of German’s most renowned early music ensembles: the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.