Mondonville: Six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord

October 11th will mark the 250th anniversary of Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, one of the last great representatives of the French baroque school. Mondonville was an excellent violin player and his instrumental music is very expressive. His most major collection may be the six violin sonatas, actually entitled Harpsichord Pieces in Form of Sonatas, Accompanied by the Violin but in which both instruments converse with refinement and equilibrium. They mark the very beginning of a French specific repertoire of sonatas for violin and keyboard with both being obbligati, and the latter not only devoted anymore to continuo. In 1966, Gustav Leonhardt and Lars Frydén performed these pieces in one of the very first Mondonville monographies.