Search - Jean-Joseph Cassana de Mondonville, Christophe Rousset, Florence Malgoire :: Mondonville: Pieces de Clavecin en Sonates Avec Accompagnement de Violon (Sonatas for Harpsichord and Violin)

Full of Galant-y Goodness

Jonathan J. Casey | the twin cities | 12/16/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The liner notes for this CD are really stinky, and the recording was made in 1990 (even though it was just released in the U.S.), but it is a nice little snippet from an oft-neglected period in the history of Western music. While Mozart is usually credited with being the first to give the violin equal footing in the accompanied keyboard sonata, Mondonville's Opus 3 is filled with a surprising amount of virtuosic, galant-style violin performance. Florence Malgoire (violin) does a fine job as does the always enjoyable Rousset (harspichord) on their unspecified period instruments. The aria from the third sonata (track 8) is especially notable. While this is by no means essential listening, it is quite good and has some curiosity value in terms of the development of the sonata form."