Lasting Impressions by Karolina Hopper

A Merry Ballet

Fenimore Chamber Orchestra made a welcome return to Christ Church on Saturday, August 24 for the first concert of the 2024-2025 season. Works by Mozart and Haydn were featured, as was the Airs de Ballet from Les Indes galantes by Jean-Philippe Rameau. One could not be faulted for thinking the program may have been somewhat eclectic; but was it? This is something already expected from this very stylish ensemble.

Rameau wrote his ballet-opera Les Indes galantes in 1735, somewhat late in his career. The “opera” reflected the impulse in the then-French theater toward real-world settings. In this case, the indigenous peoples of several different world locales including Peru, Persia and North America. Singing itself almost takes a back seat to the balletic proceedings. Style and grace are the hallmarks of stylish French Baroque playing and here Fenimore Chamber Orchestra rose to the occasion. As mentioned in other reviews, each string section played as if they were one large instrument. This is as beautiful as it is uncanny.