D.b. Leclair

Following his acclaimed recordings of sonatas by Biber, Schmelzer and Veracini and his no less lauded rendering of the complete unaccompanied works by Bach, British violinst John Holloway once again joins forces with his excellent partners Jaap ter Linden and Lars Ulrik Mortensen for an album of strikingly beautiful, yet little known chamber music from the baroque era. Jean-Marie Leclair (1697–1764) who trained as a dancer, lacemaker, violinist and composer and was murdered in Paris under obscure circumstances, laid the foundations for the French violin school. As a composer he is a master of mixed styles, providing a rare synthesis of Italian and French traits, of melodic beauty and dancelike vivacity. John Holloway has chosen sonatas from his “classical” period in which Leclair had gained a perfect balance of proportion, expressiveness and virtuosic display.

Jean-Marie Leclair - 6 Sonatas for Violin and Basso continuo from "Troisième livre de sonates", Op.5
Classical | EAC: FLAC+Cue+Log | 1 Cd, Covers | 438 Mb
Label: DENON - Date: 1993

Ryo Terakado. His interest in baroque music already started before: When he was 19, he started to play baroque violin by himself. Some years later, he founded a baroque ensemble "Concert Spirituel" together with Masahiro Arita (Flute), who influenced him a lot, and Hidemi Suzuki (cello). In 1985, he came to the Netherlands to study the baroque violin at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague under guidance of Sigiswald Kuijken. In 1989 He received a soloist diploma…

Jean-Marie Leclair’s violin sonatas embody a stylistic fusion known as les goûts réunis in which the lyricism and the virtuosity of the Italian school are integrated with the dance idioms of French Baroque music. In this volume, the music reaches new heights of technical complexity in its filigree ornamentation and continuous multiple stopping while still incorporating much wistful beauty. In the Sonata in D major, however, Leclair’s ambition expands yet further, as he combines innate lyricism and rustic drones in a prototype concerto form.

Leclair, Locatelli - L'Ange et le Diable (2001)
Classical | EAC: FLAC+Cue+Log | 1 Cd, Covers | 380 Mb
Label: Astrée - Date: 2001

Created in 1997, The Rare Fruits Council has awakened the enthusiasm of the public and obtained superlative praise in critical comments all over the world: "Their music flows like a waterfall", "bursts out like firework", "boundless and bold talent of its members", "carried away by real and wild frenzy", "infinite expressiveness" are some of the qualifying adjectives and phrases that have described the performances of the group…

This double-disc set might seem to be an item for Baroque specialists only, but general listeners should sample it as well; it's quite lovely, and its history has a labor-of-love aspect that comes through in the playing by Norwegian harpsichordist Ketil Haugsand, a specialist in the music of Jean-Baptiste Forqueray. He built the harpsichord himself and finally managed to record these pieces after several false starts.