Reliably great music from Budapest

Michel Pignolet de Montéclair: Jephté, Tragédie, Paris, 1737

I'm so excited every time I see a new recording on Glossa that features the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra, conducted by Gyorgy Vashegyi. I've reviewed four in the past: Rameau in 2019, and again in 2018; and Mondonville in both 2017 and 2016. I've come to expect the highest level of both choral and solo singing, the most stylish, Historically Informed orchestral playing, with superb engineering and really excellent supporting documentation, including libretti and good English translations.

Now it's the turn of Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, and I can encapsulate my review in a single phrase: more of the same! Montéclair is hardly a household name, and I admit never having heard his music before. I know: I don't spend enough time listening to the music of the French Baroque, which is quite surprising considering how enamoured I am of Rameau, Lully, Charpentier and Mondonville. In any case, this is a superb tragic opera, a huge hit from its first performance in 1732 through many revivals (over one hundred performances at the Paris Opéra and the Queen's Concerts at Versailles, over thirty years). And it's no wonder, considering the splendid orchestral and choral effects the composer produces. As well, there was some controversy driving the strong interest in this work, the only operatic work from the periodf based on Biblical stories. I never worry too much about the story in these kinds of stage spectaculars, since there's so much great music to move things along.

This album will be released on March 6, 2020