Get ready for a one-of-a-kind recital from the Konzerthaus Dortmund's Junge Wilde series ("young wild ones," referring to the vanguard of young artists redefining their art form) with French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, "one of the most natural performers one is likely to hear on a classical music stage these days… [O]nce seated at the instrument, he and the harpsichord become one" (The Washington Post). Rondeau climbs the steps to Parnassus, the seat of the muses in Greek mythology, in a richly allusive program tracing the impact of the music theorist and composer Johann Joseph Fux, author of the theoretical treatise Gradus ad Parnassum. Fux's work had a great influence on composers like Mozart, Beethoven, and Muzio Clementi, who published a collection of 100 etudes entitled Gradus ad Parnassum at the beginning of the 19th century. This cannily chosen program, featuring some of Rondeau's own transcriptions, is sure to delight harpischord newcomers and aficionados alike.

Photo © Edouard Bressy
Jean Rondeau appears courtesy of Erato / Warner Classics.