Violin Sonatas

Jean-Féry Rebel emerges from undeserved obscurity in the shadows of his contemporaries Lully and Delalande in this recording of his finest chamber works, the violin sonatas of 1713. Once a child prodigy violinist, Rebel enjoyed the patronage of Louis XV and wrote extensively for the ballet. His music synthesizes the qualities of the French and Italian schools, tempering 'Italian fire and genius with French wisdom and tenderness.'

1999 Critic's Choice
"The results are unusual: Manze, never short of genius or fire in the Italian and Austrian repertory he has recorded up to now, here relaxes his sound, making gentle and subtle use of tempos and dynamics and only occasionally breaking out into the impassioned lyricism of which he has shown himself so capable. But that does not mean to say that he has simply plugged into the fashionable French baroque sound with its easy grace and polite twiddles; one can easily imagine these sonatas being played in just such a pretty manner, but Manze has instead looked deep into the music and extracted from it a great variety of expression, including in many places an unexpected darkness, a brooding restraint immediately apparent in the Grave movements with which some of these sonatas open, but seldom far away even in the apparently carefree musettes, rondeaux or allemandes. It brings to the music an unexpected emotional edge, even a touch of menace.... These are highly personal performances in any case; probably only Manze would (or perhaps could) play them this way... Combined with the sympathetic contributions of Richard Egarr and Jaap ter Linden, this is baroque chamber music-making of the highest order."
- Gromophone Magazine