William Christie was already manning the barricades of early music in the middle of the last century. The driving force behind Les Arts Florissants is now 80, but still unrivalled on the historic keyboard. Along with Langlois de Swarte, already one of the most impressive violinists of his generation, he will treat us to a selection from the work of the monumental Baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, the superstar of the French golden age. The most beautiful arias from operas such as Castor et Pollux, Les Indes galantes, and Hippolyte et Aricie are performed in masterful arrangements by Langlois de Swarte and Christie. A selection of chamber music by Rameau’s contemporaries, such as Jacques Aubert and Charles-Antoine Branche, completes the program. “The grand master and the prodigy deliver virtuosity and pure poetry”, was Classica magazine’s verdict on Générations, their first joint project. It earned these consummate musicians a much-coveted CHOC and a nudge in the direction of Générations, Bis – Le violon de Rameau.
Program
Transcriptions of opera arias from Castor et Pollux, Les Indes Galantes, Hippolyte et Aricie, Dardanus by J.-P. Rameau and excerpts from sonatas and suites for violin and harpsichord by T. Bordet, J. Aubert, C.-A. Branche, J.-B. Cupis, and A. Dauvergne.
Performers
Théotime Langlois de Swarte, violin | William Christie, harpsichord