As they are treated here in the hands of veteran British Baroque violinist Simon Standage, it's hard to understand why the violin sonatas of Jean-Marie Leclair are not cornerstones of the solo violin literature. Perhaps it's that they have a subtle balance of elements that only Standage has brought out fully -- they are in what theorist J.J. Quantz called the "mixed style," fusing French decoration with Italian melody. The movement structures of the sonatas are a perfect mixture of French and Italian; consider the Violin ...
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As they are treated here in the hands of veteran British Baroque violinist Simon Standage, it's hard to understand why the violin sonatas of Jean-Marie Leclair are not cornerstones of the solo violin literature. Perhaps it's that they have a subtle balance of elements that only Standage has brought out fully -- they are in what theorist J.J. Quantz called the "mixed style," fusing French decoration with Italian melody. The movement structures of the sonatas are a perfect mixture of French and Italian; consider the Violin Sonata Op. 9, No. 1 that opens the disc, with its sequence of Adagio, Allegro assai, Andante, and Minuetto movements (the last being a French dance with an Italian name). The beauty of this music resides not just in the mixture of elements but in the way Leclair makes that mixture seem utterly natural: long-breathed melodies soar and emote, yet glisten with ornaments like long stalks of hyacinth. Standage is comfortable with the lyricism of the music, with the icier quality of the...
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