Students from the Institute for Early Music and Performance Practice present an extraordinary concert evening brimming with the splendour of Baroque sound: French orchestral music unfolds an impressive panorama spanning courtly pageantry, visionary depictions of nature and expressive musical power.
Programme
- Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687): Excerpts from *Le Bourgeois gentilhomme*
- Jean-Féry Rebel (1666–1747): *Les Élémens*. *Symphonie Nouvelle*
- Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764): Suite *Castor et Pollux*
Baroque Orchestra of the University of the Arts Bremen
Conductor: Prof. Mechthild Karkow
The programme opens with Jean-Baptiste Lully’s excerpts from ‘Le Bourgeois gentilhomme’, a satirical portrayal of bourgeois ambitions for social advancement. Stylised dances and festive orchestral movements exemplify the courtly musical culture at the court of Louis XIV and the close connection between music and social order.
Jean-Féry Rebel’s stirring work “Les Élémens” develops this tradition in an extraordinarily bold manner. In particular, the famous opening movement “Le Chaos” creates an extraordinary and experimental soundscape of the primordial creation, which gradually transitions into ordered structures and dance forms – a musical symbol of the emergence of cosmic order from chaos.
The opera *Castor et Pollux* is regarded as one of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s finest works. He expands the harmonic language of his time in a remarkable way, combining dramatic intensity with a nuanced use of sound. The orchestral movements, compiled into a suite, are characterised by richly coloured instrumentation, energetic rhythms and expressive depth.