On October 22, 1764, the murdered body of the violinist and composer Jean-Marie Leclair was found in the garden of his house in the Parisian Marais district. The crime was never solved, but the rumours blame Leclair’s second wife for not accepting the musician’s affair with the gardener boy…
Leclair may have been the greatest violinist of his age. He composed concertos, sonatas and trio sonatas, and all of his music is of great quality and technical difficulty. In 2020, two Hungarian violinists who are also a couple, set out to record Leclair’s complete sonatas for two violins for the Hungarian Hunnia label. The first volume was released that same year, and I immediately fell in love with the great playing, beautifully recorded at a little out-of-use medieval church with frescoed walls, hidden in the Hungarian countryside near the Slovenian border. It was not until this January, when finally the second volume was released on the streaming platforms.
On YouTube there is a short ‘Making of’ video, where the artists can be seen during the recording sessions… it’s beautiful in its own right…
yes, I’ve had similar frustrations looking for the complete Mahler symphonies recorded by Tennstedt, or James Levine. individual releases are available, but a several are missing. the box sets are in print, and available on Amazon.
I can confirm that neither of these is available from Qobuz USA. You can try requesting from Qobuz using the pointer provided in my Feb. 9 note. I haven’t had success thus far with 6 requests and don’t expect to hear back from Qobuz. I’ve tried calling Qobuz USA and have never had anyone answer. Low priority. Bigger things for them to worry about, like how to survive now that Apple and Amazon have entered the “high resolution/RBCD-streaming” world. Good luck, though, in finding!
I also checked at Spotify, Tidal and Apple, and none of them have the albums in the US. So it appears that Sony (which now owns RCA Records) have not released the albums to streaming services in the US.
@Andreas_Philipp1 Going back to Kapsberger, I did started to play and Stefano Maiorana caught all my attention as this sounded as an unusual compilation. Had to google Claudio Ambrosini and find out why it was an unusual compilation.
Charming video and a splendid recording venue. Love those old Romanesque churches. Thank you, Andreas. Mssr. Leclair has piqued my interest since Fabio Bondi and Europa Galante recorded some of his violin concerti in Padua 2016.
Yes! Thomas Fritzsch has done some beautiful work on releases with music by Abel and JC Bach. And then there is his album with music from the German Ledenburg manuscript I some time back presented on the other thread… All his releases on Coviello can be warmly recommended!
Thank you. I saw this new release but still have to listen to it…
Last night I once again watched the beautiful movie Tous les matins du monde, and then of course felt enthralled yet again by Marais and Sainte-Colombe. This time I also listened to Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres which during a short scene can be seen and heard in the movie…
Leclair’s music is quite extraordinary, isn’t it? I think he may be vastly underrated and while everybody knows Vivaldi, few have heard about Leclair.
As to his gorgeous sonatas for two unaccompanied violins with their marvelous musical dialogue, there are two more complete recordings I know of and which are a very worthwhile listen, as they present the material with a somewhat less virtuoso violinistic approach. Kelemen and and Kokas are technically quite baffling…
The two Hungarian musicians in the video ask themselves if they may be the first husband-wife couple to have performed and recorded these works. They are not. In 2010 and 2012, the Venezuelan-Japanese couple who form Anima Concordia released their own version:
As to Théotime Langlois de Swarte, I for once agree with Gramophone’s reviewer. Where was it that I read the remark that with his name he seems to have stepped out of a Proustian salon??
Thank you for the additional Leclair recordings. I first came upon Barnabás Kelemen on a Veress String Trio and Bartók Piano Quintet based upon a performance at the Lockenhaus International Chamber Music Festival. Another α gem.
On YouTube you can find this video with him playing tango at a chamber music festival in Hungary, together with José Gallardo from Argentina at the piano, and Nicolas Altstaedt from Germany playing his cello…
Thank you. Still savoring the Leclair vol 1. Mr. Kelemen seems a generous and virtuosic soul and Kokas Katalin is delightful. Is vol 2 available on Qobuz in South America? I’m interested in this particularly as these are described as “more difficult”.
Yes, it is. Released in January 20th… Kelemen/Kokas on both released volumes present sonatas from both Op. 3 and Op. 12, so in terms of ‘difficulty’ there shouldn’t be any difference.
