Rameau's Violin

After their first recording as a duo, released by harmonia mundi and performed in concert all over the world, William Christie and the virtuoso violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte are back together for a new musical programme, this time devoted to a major French Baroque composer: Jean-Philippe Rameau.

"At the beginning of this program, there was a portrait: that of Jean-Philippe Rameau attributed to Joseph Aved, in which the musician, a great music theorist known for his lyric works as well as his harpsichord pieces, appears not near a keyboard but with a violin. The image captures the moment, showing the musician ready to pluck the string while the first finger of his right hand places a B, inviting us to listen to this enigmatic note. From this observation was born the desire to create a musical universe from this portrait, to enter the canvas and let us hear the relationship that Jean-Philippe Rameau has maintained all his life with the violin. From his musical training, through his alleged participation in a troupe of itinerant musicians in the south of France as a violinist, to the consecration of Hippolyte et Aricie, this program takes the shape of an investigation, bringing together transcriptions of opera arias, excerpts from dance suites and sonatas by violinists and composers contemporary with Rameau." Théotime Langlois de Swarte 

A world première, to be discovered at the Festival Dans les Jardins de William Christie.