Since 2014, the CMBV has embarked on a unique partnership in Hungary with the Orfeo Orchestra and Purcell Choir (founded over 25 years ago by György Vashegyi, Hungary’s foremost baroque and classical music specialist).

Passionate about French music, he started a long term project to unearth hitherto unpublished works (such as Mondonville’s Isbé, Gervais’ Hypermnestre and next Boismortier’s Les Voyages de l’Amour) and reinterpret previously recorded works (such as Rameau’s Naïs, Montéclair’s Jephté and grands motets by Mondonville) including well known works like Rameau’s Platée and Les Indes galantes. Some of his CDs contain a mixture of popular and rare pieces, e.g. Un Opéra pour trois rois (2016), Brillez, astres nouveaux ! (2017) and Gala Rameau (2019).

The CMBV’s collaboration focuses on rare repertoires (or little known versions of well-known works) and on hitherto unpublished sheet music, and it works with world class French opera singers (Véronique Gens, Katherine Watson, Chantal Santon-Jeffery, Judith Van Wanroij, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Mathias Vidal, Thomas Dolié, Tassis Christoyannis, Jean-Sébastien Bou, etc.), and pursues research into French baroque style and language. Performances take place in MÜPA, the Budapest Palace of Arts, one of the most magnificent concert venues in Europe, and are recorded on site for the Glossa label.

Some programmes go on tour, like Un Opéra pour trois rois (performed in Versailles in the autumn of 2016) and Les Voyages de l’Amour, due to be premiered in Pécs, Hungary, and performed again in Herne, Germany this autumn.

Thanks to this Franco-Hungarian partnership, the French baroque repertoire has become a familiar feature in Hungary and rare works are again seeing the light.

The French Institute has been an active partner since collaboration started in 2015.