A ravishingly beautiful entrée piece for strings and continuo from Rameau's Les Boréades.
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Les Boréades was the last opera written by the most celebrated French opera composer
of the eighteenth century. Rameau’s in a long and fruitful career spanned over six decades, but it wasn’t until aged 50 that he started writing for the stage, with his first tragédie en musique Hippolyte et Aricie. For reasons still uncertain, the Les Boréades was never performed during Rameau’s lifetime, despite rehearsals starting at the Paris Opéra in 1763. It wasn’t until 1964 that the work was performed in its entirety with full staging. The unassuming yet beautiful entrée for Polymnie occurs in Act IV of the work, when the Greek Muse Polyhymnia descends to revive the courage and passions of the opera’s protagonist Abaris in order that he may rescue his beloved Alphise, queen of Bactria.