Chiara Varano

These two discs contain Leclair's 12 sonatas for two unaccompanied violins en duo. He produced them in two sets of six, the earlier one, Op. 3, dating from 1730, the later one from 1747-9. Barely a handful have previously been recorded, so these new issues make an important addition to the baroque catalogue. Leclair more than any of his French contemporaries implemented the technical developments in violin playing which were taking place in Italy in the hands of the post-Corelli generation.

Born in Rome in 1678 to a family of German extraction, Nicola Francesco Haym was employed (from 1694 to 1700) as a violone and cello player by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni in the orchestra led by Arcangelo Corelli. In the final years of this period the 2nd Duke of Bedford (Wriothesley Russell, 1680-1711) visited Rome and invited the violinist Nicola Cosimi to follow his entourage back to London. Cosimi in turn invited Haym to come with him as continuo cellist. Haym therefore moved to London in 1701 and would serve as the Duke of Bedford’s ‘master of chamber music’ until the patron’s death in 1711. A significant number of Haym’s compositions were produced during this first period in his life, among them diverse instrumental music for concerts at the ducal residences.

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) is one of the most remarkable French composers of the 20th century. Inspired by many (including Debussy, Satie and his fellow composers of the 'Groupe des Six'), he found his own formative voice, a unique blend of French cheerfulness and a deep, serious and sometimes melancholic feeling. This new recording presents a successful selection of Poulenc's piano works: the Trois Mouvements Perpétuels, Huit Nocturnes, Villageoises, Trois Novelettes, the Suite Napoli and two waltzes - music of great charm, seductive, touching and intimate or exuberant and cheerful. The soloist is pianist Chiara Cipelli, whose recordings for Piano and Brilliant Classics with works by Bettinelli and Messiaen have received excellent reviews in the international press.

Lumineux, c'est l'adjectif pour décrire cet album, vous vous rappelez la chanson "billy bob a raison" sur l'album "negatif" et bien c'est du même tonneau et quelque fois en mieux notamment "la ballade du mois de juin" porté par la voix à la limite de la cassure par miss biolay, "Tête à Claques" un duo bluesy avec de paroles plus Hardy que Françoise ("t'as voulu des sous tasses on a eu des sous tasses, t'as voulu un vélo …"), "A House Is Not A Home" délicieuse ballade mélancolique en anglais à la prononciation très scolaire…

Giuseppe Torelli, whose native land was Veneto, is deservedly included among the composers who contributed to the renown and success of the Bolognese School, which was undoubtedly one of the keystones of Italian Baroque music, together with the Venetian, Roman and Neapolitan Schools. Torelli’s production that has been handed down to us includes almost 200 works, most of them chamber-music instrumental compositions and orchestral pieces with solo performers. Eight of these works are in print, practically all of them published in Bologna from 1686 onwards. The 12 concerti grossi con una Pastorale per il Santissimo Natale, posthumous work no. 8 from 1709, published by Felice Torelli, brother of the composer and celebrated painter, are undoubtedly his most inspired work, and not only for their extremely high musical quality.