Rating: 5/5
Review:
Brilliant
This is quite brilliant. As a concept it may be slightly dubious - putting together extracts from several of Rameau's operas to create a different narrative - but it works well, and anyway it's so musically wonderful that I'd forgive it almost anything.
Rameau was a great composer who could conjure varied emotions in music amazingly well, and we get the full gamut here: thrilling elation, tender devotion, abject despair... it's all there and superbly done by the performers. Sabine Deveilhe is the star of this disc, and she sings wonderfully with real feeling and brilliant technique, with great control of vibrato and tone which lends genuine depth and feeling to what she is singing. It's an exemplary performance, I think - and fully matched by the other singers and musicians. The orchestra is absolutely fantastic, with tricky instrumentation and real virtuosity required, and they make it all sound wholly natural and unforced, while giving it exactly the right feel throughout - including some thrilling welly in places.
This is a marvellous disc of excellent music, superbly performed and recorded and very nicely presented. The notes are good (if a little on the florid side for my taste) and there are full texts with translations. If you have any interest at all in this repertoire, don't hesitate. Very warmly recommended.
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