Rameau Acante Cephise Cossenko

Christophe Rousset's collection of overtures to 17 of Rameau's operas and opéra-ballets, played by his original instrument ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, won a 1998 Gramophone award for best Baroque non-vocal CD, and it's easy to hear why this outstanding performance was recognized. The ensemble plays with unflagging liveliness and brilliant, clean tone. The rhythmic vitality Rousset coaxes from his players is toe-tappingly engaging; at the same time, he maintains a fluidity that avoids metronomic rigidity. The tempos he takes sometimes have a breathtaking fleetness that leaves the listener marveling at the players' virtuosity.

Jean-Philippe Rameau - Orchestral Suites, The complete Philips & Glossa recordings - Frans Brüggen (2018) {4CD Set Glossa}
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© 2018 Glossa / Note 1 Music | GCD 921125
Classical / Baroque / Period Instruments / Orchestral

Such was the significance of the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau for Frans Brüggen that the Dutch conductor’s first concert with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century featured a suite by the French composer, and his final directing appearance, shortly before his death in 2014, did likewise. Between times this inspirational musician and his orchestra recorded a series of orchestral suites drawn from the opéras-ballets, tragédies en musique and pastorales-héroïques, first for Philips and then for the orchestra’s own imprint on Glossa.

Christophe Rousset's collection of overtures to 17 of Rameau's operas and opéra-ballets, played by his original instrument ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, won a 1998 Gramophone award for best Baroque non-vocal CD, and it's easy to hear why this outstanding performance was recognized. The ensemble plays with unflagging liveliness and brilliant, clean tone. The rhythmic vitality Rousset coaxes from his players is toe-tappingly engaging; at the same time, he maintains a fluidity that avoids metronomic rigidity. The tempos he takes sometimes have a breathtaking fleetness that leaves the listener marveling at the players' virtuosity. The overtures are mostly brief, usually four or five minutes long, but they each contain a world of volatility and drama. Many of them are wonderfully eccentric, with startling juxtapositions and exotic orchestral combinations that keep them from ever settling into any kind of easy predictability.

An opera of adventurous and lavish scope, Rameau’s magical Achante et Céphise receives its world premiere recording – 270 years after its staged premiere at the Académie royale de musique in celebration of the birth of Louis XV’s grandson. The first French opera to feature clarinets, it offers a rich sequence of choruses, ballets and virtuoso ariettes and opens with a celebratory overture which includes a graphic musical depiction of a fireworks display. Alexis Kossenko conducts tenor Cyrille Dubois and soprano Sabine Devieilhe in the title roles, Les Ambassadeurs – the orchestra he founded in 2010 – and the choral singers of Les Chantres du CMBV (Centre de musique baroque de Versailles).

Pygmalion is, perhaps, Rameau's most consistently alluring ac/c de ballet whose overture, at least, was greatly admired in the composer's lifetime. There have been three earlier commercial recordings of which only the most recent, on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, is currently available. Pygmalion was Rameau's second ac/c de ballet and it contains affecting and vigorous music in the composer's richest vein. The action takes place in Pygmalion's studio. Captivated by the appearance of the statue he has just completed, Pygmalion, legendary King of Cyprus, falls in love with it.

With Cupid’s assistance, the sculptor Pygmalion brings his beloved creation to life. This recording treats us to two versions of the celebrated story. Jean-Philippe Rameau’s familiar one-act opera Pigmalion, in which the deus ex machina fulfils Pygmalion’s desires, is followed by Georg Benda’s little-known gem of the same name: a gripping monodrama for spoken voice and orchestra in which we can imagine the sculptor undergoing an inner conflict between desire and reality. Rising star Korneel Bernolet conducts his Apotheosis Orchestra and a group of young vocal partners: the Canadian haute-contre Philippe Gagné sings the passionate Pigmalion in Rameau’s opéra-ballet, alongside Lieselot De Wilde as his wife Céphise and Caroline Weynants as the divine Amour.