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Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew · Les Arts Florissants is a French Baroque ensemble, founded in 1979 by the conductor William Christie. The name comes from Marc-Antoine Charpentier's 1685 opera Les Arts florissants. The ensemble consists of a chamber orchestra on historical instruments and a small vocal ensemble. Christie is still artistic director. Since 2020 the British tenor Paul Agnew has been his co-director. The ensemble is based at the Philharmonie de Paris and has a home base in Caen.
Music and breakthrough
The group has had its greatest success with Baroque operas, both on stage and in concert form. International fame came around the turn of 1986 into 1987 with a production of an opera by Lully. In 1993 followed Charpentier's Médée. The ensemble also performs oratorios, cantatas, madrigals, masses and motets, the forms of early music. Many recordings appeared on Harmonia Mundi and Erato. Sometimes it also plays contemporary music, such as the world premiere of a work by Betsy Jolas in 1999.
Influence
Many former members became well-known conductors of early music themselves, such as Marc Minkowski, Christophe Rousset, Hugo Reyne and Hervé Niquet. They founded ensembles of their own. In this way Les Arts Florissants had a great influence on the revival of early music, in which musicians play with the instruments and playing styles of the period itself. Monteverdi's madrigal Cruda Amarilli from 1605 fits that repertoire.
Listening
Cruda Amarilli (Monteverdi) · Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew, 1605