Rameau Acante Cephise Cossenko

Pygmalion, c'est Narcisse créateur. Au lieu de s'éprendre de lui-même dans son propre reflet, il s'éprend de lui-même dans son reflet "second", sa création. S'adressant à la statue, Pygmalion chante : "Se peut-il que tu sois l'ouvrage de ma main ?" Poser la question, c'est y répondre. Apothéose de l'autosatisfaction.

The soloists of the Simón Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela have invited harpsichordist Bruno Procopio to conduct a programme dedicated entirely to Jean-Philippe Rameau. Procopio has also recorded the 'Pièces de clavecin en concerts' and first performed this all-Rameau programme at the Simón Bolivar Concert Hall in 2012. Discovering French Baroque music was a new departure for the Venezuelan musicians who responded with characteristic enthusiasm and verve to this dance-related suite, albeit working as a smaller group than usual. Maestro José Antonio Abreu, founder of El Sistema is also an acclaimed harpsichorist but as yet there are no period instrument orchestras in Venezuela.

Christophe Rousset and the Talens Lyriques bring us to the stage of the Royal Academy of Music where Pygmalion, an act of ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau inspired by an episode of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, was created in 1748. Love, showing empathy for Pygmalion's despair of loving a statue, invigorates the sculpted woman who immediately falls in love with her creator. Very suggestive, the music of this tender and mischievous ballet deploys the grace of 18th century dances. Like Ovid's Love, Christophe Rousset instils life in this score, one of Rameau's greatest successes in his day, and offers us, thanks to his sense of drama and his impeccable leadership, a new and essential reading of this ballet.