Texte paru dans: / Appeared in: Early Music Today (06-08/2015)
Glossa
GCD923502
Code-barres / Barcode : 8424562235021
Reviewer: Graham
Lock
Les Fêtes de Polymnie, first performed in Paris
in October 1745,, marked Rameau's initial collaboration with the poet Louis
de Canusac, who would provide librettos for several of his later works,
including Les Fêtes de l'Hymen et de l’Amour and Zoroastre.
The adulatory Prologue acclaims Louis XV’s victory at the Battle of Fontenoy
in May 1745, although the subsequent three entrées, each depicting the union
of a loving couple, suggest this ballet héroïque might initially have been
intended to celebrate the Dauphin’s wedding to the Spanish Infanta the
previous February. The mood is festive throughout, helped by numerous
ballets, choruses and spectacular tableaux, from the raising of a gold
statue of Louis XV in the Prologue to the 'vile frenzy' of a raucous hunting
party in the final entrée. Rameau orchestrates it all with characteristic
élan: his use of winds and brass in particular shows marvellous
imagination, and the music is, by turns, delicate and sumptuous,
exhilarating and seductive.
The tearn of first‑class
soloists here includes sopranos Véronique Gens, Emöke Baràth and Aurélia
Legay, baritone Thomas Dolié and the ardent haute‑contre Mathias Vidal. The
Orfeo Orchestra and Purcell Choir are based in Budapest (though the familiar
name of Simon Standage appears as concertmaster), yet they sound completely
au fait with the etiquettes of French baroque music. Magnifique!
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