Christmas Day. It’s thirty-five degrees, I’m stuck on the freeway, and my air-conditioning has packed it in. A hot wind pummels the side of my car. I’m desperate to get home. I turn up the volume on my stereo system, playing Les Éléments – Jordi Savall’s most recent recording on his Alia Vox label. The music – so relaxingly beautiful – offers relief.

Through his selection of compositions, Savall aims to depict man’s tempestuous relationship with the forces of nature. Each work bears some significance to the theme, such as Vivaldi’s Tempesta di mare, which literally means ‘Storm at Sea’. He writes, ‘It is not too late to save the planet through cooperation, investment and our common resolve. And music, with its “tempests and its storms” reminds us, the earth will be what we make of it!’

Savall hasn’t strayed far from his usual fare: lesser-known baroque music, predominantly French composers, and a well-thought-out concept. And, as usual, this is a tight, well-produced offering, from the exquisitely clear sound of the orchestra, to the attractive packaging and informative liner notes. It’s for these reasons that Savall’s recordings are loved and celebrated, and Les Éléments is yet another triumph.

The album takes its title from Jean-Féry Rebel’s spectacular Les Éléments, for which the composer uses discord to depict chaos. Music from Marin Marais’ Alcione is another highlight. Here, instruments rumble to create the sound of the raging winds, swiftly contrasted by the elegant, courtly music for which Marais is famous. A Gavotte from Telemann’s Water Music (1740) had my toes tapping, as did the final stirring Contredanse trés vive from Rameau’s Les Boréades.

Sitting in traffic in intense heat seems a fitting place to listen to such a poignantly curated collection of baroque music, delivering this otherwise stressed driver safely home on Christmas Day.

Alexandra Mathew