Rebel: Les Élémens | Academy of Ancient Music

Cuckoos, nightingales, flood tides and a big bang, as Laurence Cummings conducts a virtuosic celebration of nature and music – baroque style. For the composers of the 18th century, nature wasn’t an optional extra: it was an everyday reality. So of course it found its way into their music too, and this delightful concert finds frogs and toads invading a concerto, wind instruments turning into songbirds (both caged and wild) and composers in Venice and Hamburg putting to sea on the tides of harmony.

In short, all of nature is here, in music that’s alternately playful, touching and elemental in its ingenuity and power. Laurence Cummings directs soloists from within Academy of Ancient Music, and begins with arguably the most astonishing natural wonder in all baroque music: the ear-tingling chaos with which Jean-Féry Rebel opens his suite Les Élémens. Music that was ahead of its time then – and timelier than ever today.