Le Consort

Le Consort, formed in Paris in 2015, is dedicated to Baroque music, and more specifically to the trio sonata genre. Since its beginnings, this repertoire is one the group has intensively worked on, performed, recorded, and interpreted with enthusiasm, sincerity, and modernity. As the quintessence of chamber music during the Baroque era, its members strive to bring a personal, dynamic, and colorful interpretation to this genre. Comprised of two violins, a cello, and a harpsichord, the Consort has already developed numerous projects and collaborations and is considered “one of the major players on the French Baroque scene” (Diapason, October 2019).

In June 2017, Le Consort won First Prize and the Audience Award at the Val de Loire International Competition, chaired by William Christie. Since then, they have performed in numerous venues in France and Europe (Auditorium de Radio France, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Auditori de Barcelona, ​​La Roque d’Anthéron Festival, etc.). The Consort is in residence at the Royaumont Foundation, the Banque de France, and the Singer-Polignac Foundation.

Its repertoire includes works by composers such as Corelli, Vivaldi, Couperin, Purcell… but also composers who have remained unknown and whom the group strives to rediscover and make known. Bringing these unpublished composers back into the spotlight is one of the artistic signatures of the ensemble. Jean-François Dandrieu, Louis-Antoine Lefevre, and Giovanni Battista Reali are three composers whom they have recorded for the first time (respectively on the albums Opus 1, Venez chère ombre and Specchio Veneziano).

The trio sonata was the king of genres during the Baroque era, and the group believes it deserves a group dedicated entirely to doing it justice. Very few ensembles perform this repertoire, despite the immense breadth of music written for this formation. Indeed, the trio sonata can be compared to the string quartet of the Classical and Romantic eras: from 1600 to 1800, it was the most popular chamber music genre.

The growth of its members’ solo careers led the Consort to expand and flourish into larger forms, for projects such as violin concertos and operas. Drawing on their extensive chamber music experience, this change in line-up was a very fluid process: their chamber musical reflexes radiate throughout the rest of the orchestra, and the cohesion rhey have always had as a four-piece ensemble permeates the entire ensemble.