If it took an Italian, Jean-Baptiste Lully, to help shape the evolution of the French musical Baroque, it has been an American in Paris who has spearheaded its more recent revival—a revival in part heralded by a 1986 staging of Lully’s Atys at the city’s Opéra-Comique. Born in Buffalo in 1944, harpsichordist and conductor William Christie was drawn to early music from a young age, although, newly arrived in France and a member of Ensemble Five Centuries, he also engaged with contemporary music such as Berio and Birtwistle. As period instrument ensembles sprang up in the 1970s, he brought together a group of singers and instrumentalists and Les Arts Florissants was born—the title taken from an opera by Charpentier, a composer they’ve championed ever since. Indeed, Delalande and Campra, to Couperin and Rameau, French music has exerted a compelling gravitational pull. Not exclusively though. Italian and English works have threaded through an extensive discography that also embraces the Classical era with Haydn and Mozart. As an international presence in the opera house and on the concert platform, Christie has also served as guest conductor to the Berlin Philharmonic. Since 2012, the nationally recognised gardens he created at his Vendée home have hosted an annual festival where established and emerging talent blooms.