Emmanuelle Haïm, a Baroque expert “with an instinct for the crucial balance between energy and eloquence” (New York Times), directs the orchestra and singers of her ensemble Le Concert d’Astrée in choral works by three French composers of the 18th century: Rameau, Campra and Mondonville. The programme, illustrating the transition from sorrow to joy and from darkness into light, was recorded in the splendid Chapelle Royale of the palace of Versailles. When Haïm, Le Concert d’Astrée and the soloists who appear on this recording performed all three works in Dijon, where Rameau was born, Forum Opéra – noting that Haïm’s conducting “excelled as much through its vigour as its poetry” – described “a concert from which one emerged with a profound sense of happiness”.