Olivier Brault - Boismortier: Sonates pour violon, Op. 20 (2019)

To date, there are only three known copies of the only collection of sonatas for violin and basso continuo of Boismortier, work twentieth, published in 1727. The composer, installed in Paris probably since 1723 according to Stephan Perreau (Joseph Bodin de Boismortier 1689-1755, a Lorraine-Catalan musician at the Court of Enlightenment, Les Presses du Languedoc, Montpellier, 2001), had to immerse himself in what music lovers were fond of, having chosen to live only from his publications and not under any charge of court or institution, becoming thus an exceptional barometer of the taste of the music that one buys to execute it oneself or to make it execute at home. The authority of the great and the grave having considerably diminished at the end of the reign of Louis XIV and during the Regency in favor of the moving and the tender, qualities associated especially with the flute by the French, it seems natural that on the nineteen first books published by Boismortier, no less than eleven were dedicated to him. However, through this movement of taste transformation out of the old constraints, French music is seen absorbing broad Italian influences, with the violin as a champion. This instrument, closely associated with the rhythms of dance in France, suddenly showed admirable singing qualities or a new virtuosity according to an idiom proper to him. This was not done without debate, until we questioned the meaning of Italian music in its many motivational developments compared to the intelligible French musical discourse. Since the last years of the 17th century, some French musicians had tried to explore the Italian taste in front of the enthusiasm of some patrons such as Father Nicolas Mathieu, parish priest of Saint-André-des-Arcs in Paris or later, the Duke Philip of Orleans, nephew of the king and regent of France, who held a salon on the sidelines of Versailles: the Rebel, Jacquet of the War, Couperin and Duval opened the way, but it was since the foundation of the Spiritual Concert in 1725 that a new generation of soloists rivaled in invention to seduce a public free to manifest their preferences, none of which had to escape Boismortier. While writing for the violin, he participated in a vogue, but as he was not himself an interpreter, the works put forward by the violinists composers, like his friend Jean-Marie Leclair, found a diffusion to longer term.

As the first bourgeois musician, jealous of his freedom, Boismortier addressed his clients as peers, even friends. Still according to Stéphan Perreau, he knew how to shine in the world and handled well the rich leisure that was the art of the conversation, dear to the French society. We find this art in the dozen books of duets that he submitted to the public before 1727, and that is also what characterizes his music for top and basso continuo, including sonatas for violin: they are fresh, dialogue, inventive and touching, as much in the heat as in a certain depth, well dosed. Here, Boismortier sacrifices only a new trend of his time, that of simplifying the bass in favor of a voluble and ambitious soloist. If the inspiration for the twentieth work is rather Italian, beginning with the titles of each piece, the fact remains that the French taste interferes through the use of figures, ornamental possibilities, variety rhythmic and use of dance movements such as the soft gavotte, the loure, the passepied or the sarabande; eloquent examples of the meeting of tastes.

We hope that this world premiere recording will serve to promote the finesse of the spirit of Boismortier, as expressed by the violin.