Reviews

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Rameau 'Spectacular', Royal Albert Hall, London, 15 July 2007 (17 Jul 2007)

Cultures coalesced brilliantly last night when Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists met the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble from South Africa in performances of Rameau that had unrivalled zest.

Gardiner wrote about the Buskaid project in last Saturday’s paper, but even his enthusiasm could not prepare one for anything quite so infectiously exuberant.

The first half of the concert was given over to the 1722 Requiem Mass by André Campra, a consolatory work that Gardiner conducted with his characteristic taste and care for detail. But, dare one say, it was upstaged by the excerpts from Rameau operas after the interval.

These began fairly sedately, with dancers of the Compagnie Roussat-Lubek contributing stylised gesture.

But then the youngsters of the polished Buskaid ensemble took their place in the arena for selections from “Platée” and “Hippolyte et Aricie”, and with them came an entirely different style of movement from the South African group Dance for All – erotic, sinuous, muscular and fiery.

By the time all the performers came together for the final contredanses from “Les Boréades”, a sort of ecstasy had swept over the auditorium. Rameau will never seem the same again.

Geoffrey Norris

www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/07/16/bmproms116.xml