About this Artist

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Editorial Reviews

Rameau is likely the most underrated master of the Baroque age. Few composers of any era wrote with such imagination and charm, yet despite the resurgence of interest in 18th-century music, his is still all too rarely performed. Luckily, we have musicians like William Christie and Christophe Rousset, who are working hard to get Rameau the attention he deserves. This recording, the second in what one hopes will be a series, features Frans Brüggen, another of the composer's ardent champions, and includes substantial orchestral suites from the operas Naïs and Zoroastre. The delights here are too numerous to catalogue, though the vigorous Ouverture to Naïs is a good place to start. Its pounding syncopations and muscular orchestration keep one's ears keen with anticipation. For something more tender, try the "Gavotte gracieuse en Rondeau," with its delicate, delicious dissonances, or the brilliant Rondeau (Mouvement de Chaconne) from Zoroastre, where the melody never seems to end, each cadence concluding one phrase while commencing the next. Brüggen 's Orchestra of the 18th Century plays marvelously, with supple strings and a pleasant nasal twang to the woodwinds. Glossa's recording, too, is particularly lovely -- especially considering these recordings were made during live performances. If you enjoy Bach's orchestral suites and Handel's Water Music but have yet to encounter Rameau's operatic suites, you are in for a treat. If you are already a devotee, this is too good to pass up. Andrew Farach-Colton, Barnes & Noble

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