Violin Sonatas; Book 1: Nos. 9

All three volumes of this series of Leclair's first book of Violin Sonatas are excellent. Naxos somehow manage these days to produce a lot of really top-quality discs at bargain prices, and these are prime examples.

Leclair - a younger contemporary of Bach - was a virtuoso violinist who also composed a significant body of work for the instrument. He is said to have fused French elegance with the Italian vigour and lyricism of Corelli. Well, perhaps he did, but I think what is presented here is a good deal more than that. These pieces have real variety, invention and charm as well as elegance and lyricism. There are movements throughout the sonatas, for example, which sound like rustic dances and are terrifically appealing. I have owned and enjoyed for many years some scratchy old LPs of Leclair's Violin Concerti and I am glad to see his music becoming more widely available - it deserves to be much better known, I think.

The performances here are very good indeed. These three very fine and experienced musicians play together very well and with evident enjoyment of both the music and of each other which in turn produces a terrifically enjoyable experience for the listener. I get great pleasure from these recordings. I regularly pop one of these CDs into the player to listen to a sonata and am always glad I did.

The recorded sound is excellent and the notes pretty good. I would strongly recommend these discs - you've very little to lose by trying one at this price, and I'll bet that once you've listened to it you'll want the other two.

As in the previous releases of Jean -Marie Leclair's Violin Sonatas for solo violin with Harpsichord and Viola de Gamba, this Naxos recording is superb and very elegant. Adriana Butterfield on violin, Allison McGillivray on Viola da Gamba and Laurence Cummings on the Harpsichord play Leclair's Violin Sonatas numbers 9-12 of his book one most beautifully.

According to the notes to the recording, Leclair's Violin Sonatas, written in the 1600s, were very important to the French "Baroque School of violin playing and that Leclair was heavily influenced by Corelli. All that I know is that this last volume of his Book one (volume three numbers 9-12) is filled with some very beautiful and elegant Baroque chamber music I really enjoyed this recording that is recorded and played so very well.