Next year, French choir and orchestra Pygmalion will make its Australian debut at the Adelaide Festival with a series of concerts surveying the European Baroque. Founding Director Raphaël Pichon tells Jansson J. Antmann why it is so much more than a period-instrument ensemble.

Raphaël Pichon. Photo © Fred Mortagne

Fruits of Summer

When Raphaël Pichon recalls his earliest summers, they are filled with the voices of the Maîtrise des Petits Chanteurs de Versailles. As a young chorister, he recalls spending “entire months each summer, travelling all over the world and doing concerts. Step by step, I accompanied the rehearsals and sometimes even conducted a few the choirmaster was not able to do.”

Years later, during the pandemic of...