RAMEAU: In Convertendo - Les Arts Florissants, William Christie (2 DVD)

Nicolas Rivenq (Baritone); Sophie Daneman (Soprano); Jeffrey Thompson (Tenor); Olga Pitarch (Soprano)

Jean-Philippe Rameau was still a young musician when he moved to Lyon, where he probably composed his few surviving motets, including the Grand Motet In Convertendo, here performed by Les Arts Florissants under William Christie, which anticipates Rameaus orchestration in his later operatic works. The wonderful fugue on Psalm 126 (verse 6) Euntes ibant et flebant (They went forth and wept) bears comparison with similar works by his contemporary, J. S. Bach.In addition to a full performance of In Convertendo, this DVD presents some of Rameaus key chamber music pieces and an insightful music documentary, The Real Rameau, which sheds light on the life of a composer who thought only of music, dreaming of a universal harmony and regarding music as an example to all the arts and, indeed, to all the sciences as well. Pictured by his contemporaries as a gaunt and taciturn man, ill-suited to courtly surroundings, his work was described by Berlioz as one of the most sublime conceptions of dramatic music.


"These motets contain gorgeous music: they are to some degree concert music as much as religious music, and indeed the version of In Convertendo that has survived is the revised one for the Concert Spirituel. Lengthy orchestral parts, ravishing solos accompanied by flutes,occasional interludes with oboes and bassoons, make a lot of the music lyrical, if not elegiac." (www.medieval.org)

Extra features
Includes complete performances of La Timide, La Popelinière and La Rameau by Béatrice Martin harpsichord, Patrick Cohën-Akenine violin, Nima Ben David viola da gamba, Serge Saïtta flute.The revealing documentary 'The Real Rameau', including interviews with William Christie, John Eliot Gardiner, Sylvie Buissou, Andrei Serban and Laurent Pelly.