Following the success of Handel Apolle e Dafne (8555712) three years ago, Roy Goodman and the outstanding European Union Baroque Orchestra make a welcome return to Naxos with this generously filled 75-minute CD of Rameau (1683-1764) ballet music. Rameau’s ballet music is colourful, not only in its rich and varied instrumentation but also in its quirky rhythmic, melodic and harmonic turns of phrase. Platée is so vivid and full of abrupt changes of mood that it suggests its own choreography. Dardanus was described at the time as `so laden with music that for three whole hours the players do not even have time to sneeze´. At the album’s centre sits Pigmalion, possibly Rameau’s most popular and delightful work of all. These are outstanding, historically-informed performances on period instruments, led by one of the great baroque conductors of our time, and beautifully recorded too.