Rameau: Symphonies from Les Boréades, RCT 31

Description

Although not performed during his lifetime, Rameau's "Les Boréades" from 1762 are his musical masterpiece and a synthesis of his compositional work. All the musical innovations to which the composer subjected the traditional genre of the "tragédie lyrique" are manifested here, and so it is particularly the purely instrumental numbers – the divertissements and ballets – that so astonish us today in terms of their diversity of expression. Incorporated into the opera, they drive the dramatic plot forward and by means of motivic interlocking they adopt an overall formal function. in the form of orchestral suites, the baroque colour palette with its rhythmic complexity and atmospheric diversity can be heard on the basis of this edition quasi as absolute music – extremely varied and as tempestuous as the plot suggests.