Music of the French Baroque is very popular right now. And no one has done more to popularize it than conductor William Christie. “Why this sudden surge of interest in music ignored by the public for 250 years? Partly it’s a matter of the larger early-music movement and our culture’s growing fascination with its own cultural legacy. That fascination has its healthy and unhealthy aspects, suggesting a welcome attention to its past and perhaps a waning interest in its creative present.”