Grand Voyage: The French Baroque

Explore the elaborate orchestral textures of the French baroque, including music that earned the orchestra a JUNO award and Grammy nomination.

Following her remarkable Tafelmusik debut in 2021/22, violinist Leila Schayegh was immediately invited to return as soloist and guest director for a program devoted to sublime French baroque music. She brings “multicoloured delicacy and suppleness” (Gramophone) to Leclair’s Violin concerto in E Minor, featured on her critically acclaimed 2022 recording.  

The Enlightenment idealism that captured the French imagination in the 18th century infuses the orchestral selections on this program, starting with Rebel’s groundbreaking 1737 work, Les Élémens, which depicts the chaotic moment when time itself began. Considered something of a radical composer in his day, Rameau created a stir at the Paris Opera when producing his first opera a few years earlier. The originality and inventiveness of his dramatic works is also displayed in his lighter opera-ballets: a suite of instrumental movements from Les Indes Galantes offers the full palette of 18th-century orchestral sonorities and textures. Our concert closes with the Chaconne from the composer’s Dardanus—music for which Tafelmusik has received a JUNO Award and a Grammy nomination.