Jeux de doubles

Composed from the first bars of the theme of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Gavotte and Six Doubles, Jeux de doubles presents itself as a stained-glass window in which the reminiscences of Rameau's theme take on the most diverse appearances – both harmonically and rhythmically as well as in spatial arrangement – as in a series of short variations linked together. The idea of the double appears in the play of false symmetries that governs, for example, the sequence of rhythmic squares, or the idea of stylistic duality when we fleetingly glimpse snatches of baroque phrases dialoguing with their own polymodal transformation in a play of distorting mirrors.
This same idea of the double is still found in the spatial division of the keyboard into two distinct planes, which most often leads to a superposition of two different musics, or two types of opposing evolutions. The whole thing finally takes place in a sort of dance that is both frenetic and jubilant, interspersed with brutal eruptions of opposing climates: a dance to which a constantly renewed writing of irregular rhythms gives a character of playful toccata. It was Alexandre Tharaud who ensured the creation of the piece alternating with Rameau's suite.

(Thierry Escaich)