Leclair / Schayegh - Concerti Per Violino - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Jean-Marie Leclair epitomized the idea of an eighteenth-century virtuoso-composer, one whose compositional output largely reflects his activity as a performer. Whilst the French school possessed precursors such as Jean-Féry Rebel, it is very much to Leclair that it owes it's genuine development. The virtuoso violinist became a highly sought-after teacher, and a full generation of musicians were recipients of his teaching. Leclair published twelve concertos for violin in two sets, Op. 7 and Op. 10. The Op. 7 collection, of which four concertos have been included in this recording, is without doubt partially made up of works which Leclair performed at the Concert Spirituel between 1728 and 1736. Today, we are aware of the sytle employed by Leclair in his violin playing through his own writings and concert reviews from the time. His uncompromising ideal of performance is of a truly Appolonian nature precision and integrity in execution, economy with the use of effects, accurate intonation and nobility of expression - all features brought to this new recording by Fabio Biondi and his already legendary ensemble, Europa Galante. The scholar Louis Castelain of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles provides the booklet notes.

Dimitry Sinkovsky is a dazzlingly multi-talented artist -a brilliant violinist, countertenor, conductor, and founder in 2011 of the ensemble La Voce Strumentale. In Virtuosissimo, his fifth venture with Naïve, he has teamed up again with the ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro, his partners in numerous recordings and concerts, to cast more light on Pisendel, a celebrated violinist and composer who led the prestigious Dresden Court Orchestra, and a Vivaldi devotee who copied out several of the Venetian master's concertos for performance in Dresden. Virtuosissimois a photography of an influential moment in music history. With this new album, Dmitry Sinkovsky goes beyond Vivaldi and his influences as well as Pisendel, he plays works by Locatelli, Tartini, Leclair and Telemann, all of whom enriched the early 18th-century violin repertoire with opulent, highly personal works focusing on soloistic bravura. A century later, Paganini was to draw on this baroque heritage. All the concertos here have inspired high-wire performances to Dmitry Sinkovsky fiery exchanges with the orchestra, cunningly crafted cadences, vertiginous harmonics, startlingly unexpected bowing, sharp-edged attacks, daunting double-stopping... Sinkovsky seems to completely embody these five concertos, as if propelled by an inextinguishable flame the electrifying result is truly 'virtuosissimo'.

With the four missing concertos, Leila Schayegh completes her series of recordings of all violin concertos by Jean-Marie Leclair with the third . Leclair grew up in Lyon and was trained as a dancer and violinist, later concentrating entirely on playing the violin. In Turin he had lessons with the distinguished teacher and Corelli pupil Giovanni Battista Somis and then went to Paris, where he briefly held a position at the court of Louis XV in the 1730s. Leclair must have been fascinated by Italian culture and playing the tempo freedoms in playing, the virtuoso aspects of violin technique, the expression that is strongly outward in Italian music - all of this is evident in his celebrated twelve concertos from opp. 7 and 10. Leila Schayegh teaches baroque violin at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and has received numerous excellent reviews and awards with her recordings. Her second album of the Leclair concertos was awarded a Diapason d'or and for her recording of the solo partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach she received the Diapason d'or de l'annee! This third and last in the series of Leclair's violin concertos includes Concertos Nos. 1 and 3 from Opera 7 and 10 respectively. On this album, too, the Swiss violinist, who plays a violin by Andrea Guarneri from the late 17th century, captivates the listener with her breathtaking artistry - as soloist she also takes over the direction of the La Cetra Barockorchester Basel.