Harpsichordist Jean Rondeau performs "Gradus Ad Parnassum" at Princeton University Concerts

Whatever your preconceptions of the harpsichord may be, Jean Rondeau will undoubtedly shatter them all as he takes us to Parnassus, the mythological mountain home of the Muses. Leading the charge of a new generation of keyboardists, including as a founding member of the Jupiter Ensemble, which made a rousing debut on the Princeton University Concerts (PUC) 2022-23 season, Rondeau makes his inaugural PUC appearance with a program exploring the stunning range of the harpsichord. Through works spanning the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries-much of it originally written for the piano-this "champion of his instrument" (Le Temps) asks us to consider what piano repertoire might illuminate about the harpsichord, and what the harpsichord might reveal about music composed for the piano. As he explains is, "my idea was never to take some piano pieces and find a way to make them work on the harpsichord...my idea was more to build something around musical languages which are common to both instruments." Sit onstage with this trailblazing artist as you get to know this music and this instrument in a completely new way. Program: GRADUS AD PARNASSUM JOHANN JOSEPH FUX Harpeggio in G Major, E114 JOSEPH HAYDN Haydn Sonata No. 31 in A Flat Major, Hob XVI: 46 MUZIO CLEMENTI Gradus ad Parnassum Op. 44 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Prelude No. 2 for Piano or Organ, Op. 39 Prelude in F Minor, WoO 55 W.A. MOZART Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major, K. 545 Fantasia No. 3 in D Minor K. 397 URLs: Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/1776146-2?pid=6434 Website: https://go.evvnt.com/1776146-3?pid=6434