Today's programme consists of a grand suite for soloists, chorus and orchestra compiled from opera passages: this brilliant music offers a remarkable opportunity to encounter this brilliant composer's vocal and instrumental writing style. Many elements of Rameau's typically French style also lived on into the 19th and 20th centuries, including in the music of Debussy and Ravel. The overture to Zaïs depicts chaos in an entirely original fashion, while the orchestral prelude to Naïs illustrating the battle between the Titans and the Gods, the grand chorus of mourning in Castor et Pollux (Que tout gémisse… ) and the Great Peace Pipe Dance from Les Indes galantes remain rarely heard works in Hungary to this day.
The soloists in this concert are superb Hungarian artists with exceptional skill in performing Baroque music. They will be singing Rameau's finest arias, duets and trios which the composer originally wrote for the Opéra de Paris, the company of the Académie Royale de Musique. In addition to the works mentioned, we have also selected parts from the operas Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Paladins, Dardanus and Les fêtes d'Hébé. (Benoît Dratwicki, artistic director of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles)

Co-production of Orfeo Music Foundation Budapest and Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles

Sponsored by: Municipality of the Buda Castle District, Ministry of Human Capacities, National Cultural Fund of Hungary, Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles

Presented by: Sysart Kft. Orfeo Music Foundation