©Photo: Shura Rusanova

©Photo: Edouard Bressy

Jean Rondeau

Harpsichord / Conductor

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“He internalizes the music he plays so completely that any interpretive ambivalence or miscalculation is unthinkable. The sincerity and modesty of his delivery are the keys to its power”
(Washington Post)

Artistic Director: Bel Air Festival

Described as “one of the most natural performers one is likely to hear on a classical music stage” by the Washington Post, Jean Rondeau is a veritable global ambassador for his instrument. His outstanding talent and innovative approach to keyboard repertoire have been critically acclaimed, marking him out as one of today’s leading harpsichordists.

Following a year that saw his debut with the Orchestre de Paris performing Poulenc’s Concerto Champêtre, Rondeau’s 2021/22 season includes concerto engagements with the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, a concert tour with the Freiburger Barockorchester, and a C.P.E. Bach tour with the Kammerorchester Basel with Rondeau play-conducting from the harpsichord. In the realm of chamber music, Rondeau shares the stage with Nicolas Altstaedt at the Berlin Staatsoper and re-reunites with his fellow co-founders of the Nevermind Quartet for recording projects and performances in Madrid, Dortmund and la Chaux-de-Fonds. He also joins long-time collaborator Thomas Dunford for a tour of Japan following recent appearances at the Stockholm Early Music Festival, the Festival Concentus Moraviae, the Ribeira Sacra Guitar Festival, the Haapsalu Festival and the Hindsgavl Festival last summer. A notable highlight throughout the year is Rondeau’s tour of major European venues performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations – a project long in the making; emphasising sustainability with a “green itinerary” to highlight his environmental commitments, it includes visits to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Frankfurt Opera House, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Geneva’s Victoria Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, and London’s Wigmore Hall. Rondeau also features in multiple performances at the Salle de la Musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds as part of a six-concert “artist portrait” series in conjunction with a joint residence with the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève.

Rondeau is signed to Erato as an exclusive artist, with whom he has recorded several albums championing ancient music. His latest solo album Melancholy Grace (2021) was acclaimed as “soulful […] varied, [and] wonderful” by the NY Times and “sublime” by Le Devoir. Rondeau’s previous album Barricades (2020), recorded with Thomas Dunford, garnered widespread critical acclaim, as did his 2019 Scarlatti Sonata recording, which won that year’s Diapason d’Or de l’Année. Earlier publications include his debut album Imagine (2015), which received the Choc de Classica and recognition from the Académie Charles Cros; Vertigo (2016, winner of that year’s Diapason d’Or), which paid tribute to two Baroque composers from his native France: Jean- Philippe Rameau and Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer; and Dynastie (2017), which explores keyboard concertos by Bach and his sons Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, and Johann Christian.

New music is also important to Jean Rondeau. In 2018, he played the world premiere (BBC commission) of Eve Risser’s Furakèla for solo harpsichord at the BBC PROMS, having composed his first original film score two years earlier for Christian Schwochow’s Paula, which was premiered at the 2016 Locarno Film Festival.

In addition to his engagements as a soloist, recitalist and conductor, Rondeau also regularly gives masterclasses around the world. Rondeau is in high demand as a teacher and has given masterclasses across the world from the Gstaad Academy to the University of Hong Kong.

Rondeau studied harpsichord with Blandine Verlet at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, followed by training in continuo, organ, piano, jazz and improvisation, and conducting. He completed his musical training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In 2012, he became one of the youngest performers ever to take First Prize at the International Harpsichord Competition in Bruges (MAfestival 2012), aged 21.

Jean Rondeau - Bach: Harpsichord Concerto No.1 in D Minor BWV 1052 © Warner

Jean Rondeau plays Scarlatti: Sonata in A minor, K.175 © Warner classics

Bach - Aria mit 30 Veränderungen Goldberg Variations BWV 988 - Rondeau | Netherlands Bach Society © Netherlands Bach Society

Jean Rondeau records 'Vertigo' for harpsichord (Royer) © Warner classics

Jean Rondeau plays Bach's Chaconne on harpsichord for his debut album IMAGINE © Warner Classics

“Philadelphia Chamber Music Society recently hosted its first foray into the [solo harpsichord recital], presenting the exciting young keyboardist Jean Rondeau at Benjamin Franklin Hall, and his Bach-heavy recital proved a knockout.”

(Broad Street Review, March 2019)

“Stimulating and exciting, Rondeau proves that this music can sound as vital today as it did when
penned.”

(Seen and Heard International, July 2018)

“For such a short work, Risser and Rondeau managed here to create a fascinating collection of effects, and in fact this proved to be a striking end to a highly impressive recital.”

(Bachtrack, July 2018)

“JS Bach’s BWV1056 in F minor has thoughtfulness, fun and flourish, followed by a reading of CPE Bach’s Wq23 Concerto in D minor which captures this stylistic wild child’s maverick choppiness with clipped, buoyant elegance.”

(Gramophone, February 2017)

“[Rondeau’s] performance of Le vertigo is a thing of pugilistic wonder, flouncing around like an operatic diva succumbing to a hissy fit…he cuts a virtuosic swathe through Royer’s Marche des scythes…”

(BBC Music Magazine, July 2016)

“Rondeau has developed an affinity for [the harpsichord] and a comfort in its presence that allow him to see in it its possibilities rather than its limitations…his agile and rock-solid finger technique means that Rameau’s Les Niais de Sologne and Royer’s La marche des Scythes can thrill as they should while never trampling on the gorgeous deep tone of the magnificent instrument…there is no doubt that he is a player of immense ability from whom we reasonably may hope for much.”

(Gramophone, April 2016)

“Il est avant tout un vrai musicien, ou plutôt un « personnage musical », incomparable. J’ai rarement assisté à un concert classique aussi positivement cool et pourtant aussi juste et nourrissant, sorte de partage collectif, délectable et détendu dans les intermèdes parlés, sérieux et brillant dès que l’artiste touche au clavecin (…) Ce qui frappe en premier, c’est son sens inné et très particulier de la respiration et du timing.”

(Le Devoir, April 2016)

“Confié à des mains aussi expertes, le clavecin n’a rien d’un boudoir pour précieuses ridicules ou comtesses alanguies mais devient le grand écran des émotions. Jusqu’au vertige. “

(Classica, March 2016)

“In such capable hands, the harpsichord is no longer trapped in a boudoir for pretentious young ladies and English countesses, but becomes a big screen on which emotions are played out…To the point of vertigo.”

(Classica, March 2016)

“So gelungen können Bach-Debüts ausfallen.”

(Rondo, March 2016)

“Ici, on admire la beauté formelle d’une danseuse libérée de la gravité, là une plainte presque suffocante. La prise de risque survoltée ne brusque jamais la nature de l’instrument, c’est là tout le sel et la valeur de cette vision éblouissante.”

(Diapason, March 2016)

“Un maître du suspense qui sait ménager par son jeu ductile et dynamique plus d’une tension dramatique.”

(Le Figaro, March 2016)

“Ce grand travailleur a l’humilité des artistes qui savent que rien n’est jamais acquis. A 24 ans il est déjà un des grands clavecinistes de ce siècle.”

(Le Figaro, February 2016)

“Rondeau is one of the most natural performers one is likely to hear on a classical music stage these days. Affectation and ostentation are not part of his makeup and, once seated at the instrument, he and the harpsichord become one. Everything after that is music-making that is masculine, direct and richly human. Rondeau is a master of his instrument with the sort of communicative gifts normally encountered in musicians twice his age. He internalizes the music he plays so completely that any interpretive ambivalence or miscalculation is unthinkable. The sincerity and modesty of his delivery are the keys to its power.”

(The Washington Post, June 2015)

“Not only is the trajectory utterly sure-footed; he can also generate palpable excitement without resorting to empty bravado…Rondeau is a natural communicator, unimpeded by the imperative to score academic points…Make no mistake – [Vertigo] is an auspicious debut.”

(BBC Music Magazine, April 2015)

“Il y a chez lui une autorité naturelle, multiplié par un certain brio, qui plonge l’auditeur dans une atmosphère de sureté, de sécurité intellectuelle.”

(Le Nouvel Observateur, February 2015)

“On est séduit dès les premiers instants par la délicatesse du toucher, par le contact charnu et sensible avec la corde qu’il nous fait ressentir.”

(Diapason, February 2015)

“Quel toucher ! Quelle imagination! Quelles couleurs!”

(L’Express, February 2015)

“Sa virtuosité lui permet des appoggiatures foudroyantes, des incises susceptibles de nourrir et de relancer le drame, tout est vivant, ardent, captivant, toujours sur le mode dynamique et allant.”

(La Libre, August 2012)