Rameau: Zaïs
Julian Prégardien, Sandrine Piau, Aimery Lefèvre, Benoit Arnould, Amel Brahim-Djelloul, Hasnaa Bennani, Zachary Wilder
Les Talens Lyriques & Choeur de chambre de Namur, Christophe Rousset
Christophe Rousset’s recording is distinguished by a dazzling variety of articulation, dynamics and timbres … The playing of Les Talens Lyriques is supple and characterful … Piau is faultlessly...
Rameau: Zaïs
Julian Prégardien, Sandrine Piau, Aimery Lefèvre, Benoit Arnould, Amel Brahim-Djelloul, Hasnaa Bennani, Zachary Wilder
Les Talens Lyriques & Choeur de chambre de Namur, Christophe Rousset
Purchase product
Christophe Rousset’s recording is distinguished by a dazzling variety of articulation, dynamics and timbres … The playing of Les Talens Lyriques is supple and characterful … Piau is faultlessly...
About
Limited Edition CD Book, 3 CDs
In 1745, the king granted Jean-Philippe Rameau the position of Composer du cabinet du roy, which came with a pension. This new period would see productions in a lighter vein, in collaboration with the librettist Louis de Cahusac, and some of the Burgundian musician's most important masterpieces.
'Zaïs', performed in 1748 on the stage of the Académie Royale de Musique, is one of them. This ballet-héroïque gave French music one of its finest works. The entire score is in the image of its famous overture: organising Chaos, surprising in its theatrical timbres and the boldness of the harmony. Although the plot is quite flimsy – a lover (Zaïs) putting his beloved (Zélidie) to the test to cherish her all the more – it is the pretext for innumerable divertissements and dances, whose magic is a veritable enchantment to the ear.
40 years after Gustav Leonhardt, it is the turn of Christophe Rousset to work on this score in a continuing series of recordings, concerts and writings that have made him one of Rameau's leading champions.
Contents and tracklist
- Amel Brahim-Djelloul, Sandrine Piau, Zachary Wilder, Hasnaa Bennani, Benoît Anould, Benoit Arnould, Aimery Lefèvre, Julian Prégardien, Amel Brahim-Djellul
- Les Talens Lyriques, Chœur de Chambre de Namur
- Christophe Rousset
Awards and reviews
Christmas 2015
Christophe Rousset’s recording is distinguished by a dazzling variety of articulation, dynamics and timbres … The playing of Les Talens Lyriques is supple and characterful … Piau is faultlessly expressive and stylish.
1st December 2015
“Les Talens Lyrique show that they play this music as to the manner born, and Rousset's direction is a model of clarity and dynamism…It really helps to have a French singing cast who sound as though they've grown up singing this stuff. As Zaïs himself, Julian Prégardien is marvellous…Sandrine Piau sings Zélidie with predictable beauty and sensitivity. There is richness and a fully rounded quality to her voice that offsets the often ethereal quality found by Prégardien…Number after number brings great beauty and winning style, and I urge you to explore it
February 2016
the choral singing is thoroughly accomplished. By now it verges on the near-superfluous to point to the idiomatic mastery brought to this repertoire by Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques, their relish of the composer's colourful scoring apparent from the outset of a performance of outstanding merit.
27th September 2015
The music is spellbinding in its energy, grace and boldness. Here, with the principals Julian Prégardien and Sandrine Piau, its performance is scintillating.
