Les Arts Florissants (FR)

About

Les Arts Florissants are one of the great names in baroque performance. Founded in 1979 by American French harpsichordist and conductor William Christie, the French ensemble takes its name from a Marc Antoine Charpentier opera, which also happened to be their first fully staged production. Their 1987 staging of Lully's Atys at the Opéra Comique in Paris, a work that had not been performed since 1753, announced them as serious forces in historically informed performance. They play on period instruments and appear in formations ranging from a small chamber group to a full choir and orchestra, clocking over 100 concerts per season in major halls and festivals worldwide. Over the years they have championed a remarkable range of forgotten repertoire, including little known works by Charpentier, André Campra, Henry Desmarest and Jean Joseph de Mondonville, many of which received their modern premieres courtesy of the ensemble. Their catalogue stretches well beyond the baroque too, taking in Mozart and Haydn alongside Monteverdi, Purcell and Handel. With more than 130 recordings for Harmonia Mundi, Warner Classics and Erato, and multiple Gramophone Awards, they remain a benchmark for the genre. Since 2013 countertenor Paul Agnew has shared artistic direction with Christie.