a splendid performance of a splendid work, one that can be readily recommended to those interested in the composer or the French Baroque in general. For those not yet captured by the glories of Rameau, it would be a fine introduction to them.

There’s a vigour and charm to the choruses and dances that is quite irresistible...All this is superbly performed by Václav Luks and his Czech chorus and orchestra. The principal soloists are, mostly, French or Belgian. As the much put-upon Alphise, Deborah Cachet is particularly forceful in ‘Songe affreux’This is a first-rate performance, on a par with Gardiner’s terrific recording on Erato.

The results are exceptionally satisfying, Václav Luks capturing the boisterous directness of the work, while not neglecting the more Ramellian finesse on which a French conductor might have been expected to concentrate. The Belgian soprano Deborah Cachet is a strong Alphise.