CMP Review 2025-12-18

December 18, 2025

“I think a child should be able to receive anything that’s true in art or in life,” said Jean Rondeau. “We like to hide things from a child because we think they will be too much for them… But I think hiding stuff is one of the first [offenses] against a child.”

Rondeau, born in 1991, heard the sound of a harpsichord on the radio when he was five years old. “Without knowing who was playing, what was being played, or even what the instrument was,” he pleaded with his parents to let him learn how to play it.

Amazingly, he was taken on as a student by one of France’s leading harpsichordists. But she was no ordinary teacher. Instead of focusing on mechanics and drills, she focused on music.

“I think she realised that I was not there for words, that I had this extreme, passionate fire for the music,” Rondeau recalled. “I would spend the week practising in order to be able to play a piece, not studies or anything, and her teaching was to listen. She wouldn’t talk much, and sometimes we would just play two harpsichords together… [She] taught me that music was always there for me in my desire.”

Nancy Kelly wrote a classic article entitled “The Thing is the Thing.” Whether “the thing” is a harpsichord or a harp or a history or a hymn, it’s full of life for the child. Let’s not obscure it behind a cloud. After all, the science of relations always begins with an introduction.

@artmiddlekauff

Source: Gramophone, November 2025