Alexandre Jean Joseph ‘the Rich’ de la Popelinière was one of the most important patrons of the arts in mid-18th-century France. The events he organised at his mansion brought together the most important artists and thinkers of the time. The composer Jean Philippe Rameau conducted his private orchestra for more than 20 years, and it featured the best musicians in Paris.
With this programme, we want to recreate one of those concert evenings, where Rameau himself, flutist Michel Blavet and viola da gamba player Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, among others, could have shared the stage.
In addition to their music, we will delve into the musical controversy of the time: whether or not to accept influences from outside France, mainly Italian violin music. Curiously, at this same time, an arrangement for the transverse flute (one of the most traditionally French instruments) of the violin sonatas of the famous Arcangelo Corelli was published in Paris. This Italian violin school was decisive in the birth of a French school for this instrument, with representatives such as Jean-Marie Leclair, and a clear stylistic influence on the work of composers such as Louis-Antoine Dornel.
However, it was not only the Italians who left their mark. The German Georg Philipp Telemann travelled to Paris and had close contact with this prestigious circle of musicians.
In addition, as a representative of another new fashion, anglomania, we will hear music by the British composer William Babell, who was undoubtedly also inspired by his Italian contemporaries...