Leclair, Royer, and Barrière

Jean-Marie Leclair, Sonatas / Overture / Concerto, Les Folies Françoises, P. Cohën-Akenine Pancrace Royer, Premier Livre de Pièces pour Clavecin, C. Rousset [Review]

Read my review published today in the Washington Post:

Charles T. Downey, Ensemble Les Folies Françoises plays with vivacity at La Maison Française
Washington Post, March 18, 2010

The excellent series of baroque music concerts at La Maison Française continued on Tuesday night. Some daring sonatas by Jean-Marie Leclair, the foremost French violin virtuoso of the early 18th century, were performed by three players from the historically informed performance ensemble Les Folies Françoises. Violinist Patrick Cohën-Akenine, harpsichordist Béatrice Martin and cellist François Poly drew the program largely from their fine "Leclair" CD, released a few years ago on the Alpha label.

Cohën-Akenine played with vivacity and accuracy, adding lavish ornamentation while producing a warm, smooth tone on his instrument's gut strings. The fourth and seventh sonatas from Leclair's third book were the most consistently lovely from all three musicians. In the opening Leclair sonata (No. 8 from the second book), Poly did his best at playing the middle part, created for a middle-range viola da gamba and notated mostly in the C clef, but the high passages were often strained and off-key. [Continue reading]

Patrick Cohën-Akenine (violin), Béatrice Martin (harpsichord), François Poly (cello)
Les Folies Françoises (music by Leclair, Royer, Barrière)
La Maison Française

PREVIOUSLY ON LECLAIR:

• Charles T. Downey, Band of Brothers: Trio Hantaï Warms Up for Boston (Washington Post, June 13, 2009)
  
• ---, John Holloway @ LoC (Ionarts, April 19, 2008)
  
• ---, Baroque Music in Versailles (Ionarts, January 4, 2006)