Leeds – Recital with Florence Malgoire – 31 March 2020 – Leeds International Concert Season – United Kingdom

As guest curator of the 2019-2020 chamber music series of the Leeds International Concert Season, I’m pleased to be playing the concluding recital of the season with celebrated French violinist Florence Malgoire:
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J.-F. Rebel (1666-1747) Sonata in D minor
E. Jacquet de La Guerre (1665-1729) Sonata No. 4 in G
J.-M. Leclair (1703-1777) Sonata Op. 3, No. 9
C. Balbastre (1724-1799) La de Caze, La Courteille, La D’Héricourt
J.-J. C. d. Mondonville (1711-1772) Sonata Op. 1

Florence Malgoire, Violin
Mahan Esfahani, Harpsichord

The final programme of the season, featuring our guest Artistic Director and the celebrated French specialist of baroque violin, Florence Malgoire, looks at the concept of “Aube et Crépuscule” - the dawn and dusk of the violin in pre-revolutionary France. As the violin was adopted by French musicians as a vehicle for solo expression and virtuosity, first by remarkable seventeenth century composers who combined new techniques and ideas from Italy with the sublimity of French musical expression, it founds its highest exponent in the Italian-trained Jean-Marie Leclair, the very model of the classical virtuoso.

The works of Balbastre and Mondonville are a testament to the waning of French early classicism in the years prior to the revolution, as a uniquely French style eventually gave way to the chilly Germanic winds of Enlightenment, concluding this programme and the season on a note of regret for the passing of great musical phenomena and hope for the future.