Sonates a deux violons sans basse Op.12 Paris 1747 The violin duos, with their enforced economy of means, demonstrate just as much as the concertos a perfect union between musical brain, bowing arm and fingers. This music that hardly needs the intervention of a modern editor, since it is so meticulously set down.
The violin duos could even have been conceived initially as compositions for Leclair and Locatelli to perform in public together, although that is only speculation. It is unclear whether the Op.12 set is as chronologically distinct from the Op.3 set as the different date of publication suggest. Composers tended to accumulate compositions for years, periodically polishing them, before finally committing them to print, and so the second set may not really date from a different period. One difference is evident, however: Op12 prefers, in four sonatas, a four -movement structure, which it configures in various ways. Sonatas 4 and 6 are conventional in presenting a slow-fast-slow-fast sequence, but sonata 3 has no really fast movement until the final Prestissimo and Sonata 2 prefigures -but surely only fortuitously-the movement layout of the Classical symphony, with a minuetto (Leclair even uses the Italian word instead of the native menuet placed third. Leclair obviously conceived Op.12 as a sequel to, or even a continuation of Op.3.: pieces for a couple of identical instruments inevitably suggest the human a due combinations of father and son (as the Vivaldi case), teacher and pupil (as the Tessarini case) or-as in the present performance- a husband and a wife. The combination by it's very nature suggests symmetry, intimacy and solidarity. Leclair's twelve sonatas manifest this ideal in it's pure and most perfect form. Michael Talbot 2009 (extrait from CD booklet) REVIEWS: They convey all the beauty of Leclair's work, it is well worth taking some quality listening time for this performance CDJournal Magazine, Tokyo 2010 This CD enriches our appreciation of the originality and imagination of the music of Jean -Marie Leclair The Record Geijitsu Magazine, Tokyo, 2010.
