The Accents play with a single bow and millimetre precision, and what fruity colours and expressiveness!

Les Accents, founded by the violinist Thibault Noally at the Beaune Festival in July 2014, are dedicated to promoting the vocal and instrumental repertoires of the 17th and 18th centuries, in particular the Italian sacred repertoire, which forms the cornerstone of their artistic project. The ensemble quickly made a name for itself through its in-depth exploration of the Italian oratorio, drawing on forgotten scores by Caldara, Porpora (the revival of Il Trionfo della Divina Giustizia caused a sensation), Scarlatti, Bononcini and Stradella.

Cantatas and operas also form part of Les Accents’ favourite repertoire. In the field of opera, the ensemble explores little-known works of opera seria, primarily the scores of Vivaldi (Tamerlano), Alessandro Scarlatti (Mitridate Eupatore), Caldara and Porpora. However, they do not neglect Handel, whose opera Rodrigo they performed at the Beaune Festival. Recently, they triumphantly revived Scarlatti’s oratorio Santa Teodosia at the La Chaise-Dieu Festival (recorded for Aparté), with which a strong partnership centred on Alessandro Scarlatti has been forged, leading to the revival of San Filipo Neri in 2021, Sedecia, Re di Gerusalemme and La Giuditta in 2022.

The Baroque violin repertoire forms the core of the ensemble’s programme in its purely instrumental form, ranging from the Venetian school (Venezia 1700) to the German school (Buxtehude, Pachelbel, the Bach dynasty) and the French repertoire (Leclair, Mondonville).

Highlights from previous seasons include Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Véronique Gens and Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Arsenal de Metz, Théâtre impérial de Compiègne), and Handel’s Rodrigo with Vivica Genaux, Emőke Baráth and Julia Lezhneva (Theater an der Wien). The staged production of Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo (directed by Ted Huffmann) at the Montpellier Opera was met with widespread acclaim by the press. A concert version was performed at the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow and at the Philharmonie de Paris.

From 2023 onwards, Les Accents can be seen performing in some of Europe’s finest venues. In November 2023, Les Accents performed Scarlatti’s Mitridate at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris. In February 2024, they performed Handel’s Rinaldo with a superb cast (Emőke Baráth, Carlo Vistoli, Chiara Skerat, Lucille Richardot…) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, where a recording was made for Ràdio Catalunya. Les Accents are making the most of the summer with appearances at the festivals in Froville, Rocamadour, Vézelay, Beaune, Hardelot, Zamora, the Festival de Paris and the Musikfest in Bremen…

In February 2025, Les Accents celebrated their 10th anniversary at the Salle Gaveau in Paris with Julia Lezhneva and Max Emanuel Cenčić. A few months later, they made their debut at the Berlin Philharmonie, performing one of their brand-new productions, Hasse’s oratorio Serpentes ignei in deserto, which they also recorded for the Warner Classics label with countertenors Philippe Jaroussky, Jakub Orliński, Carlo Vistoli, Bruno de Sá, David Hansen and soprano Julia Lezhneva.

During the 25/26 season, the ensemble performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Müpa in Budapest, the Opéra du Rhin, Les Invalides, the Opéra de Vichy and the Swidnicka Festival (Poland). Upcoming engagements include a European tour of Handel’s Agrippina with Magdalena Kožená, a return to the Berlin Philharmonie, as well as to the Klangvokal in Dortmund and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with Alessandro Scarlatti’s previously unperformed Cantata for Christmas Eve.

Les Accents have a number of recordings to their name: in addition to Scarlatti’s Santa Teodosia (Aparté), these include Venezia 1700, released in 2016; Oratorio, featuring mezzo-soprano Blandine Staskiewicz, in 2018; and Bach and co in 2019.
In June 2020, Scarlatti’s Il Martirio di Santa Teodosia was released (Diapason d’Or, OperaNews Critic’s Choice, Forumopera’s Coup de Cœur), and the album Concerts en sextuor by Rameau is due for release in April 2022.
In autumn 2025, Les Accents released the album Stabat Mater by Scarlatti, featuring soprano Emmanuelle De Negri and countertenor Paul Figuier, on the Alpha label.