The Violin at Versailles: Olivier Brault, Loretta O’Sullivan & Andrew Appel

This recital of Olivier Brault, Loretta O’Sullivan and Andrew Appel was recorded live at the Masonic Hall in Hillsdale New York on March 19, 2020. The program includes: Spoken introduction (0:00) Overture to Roland of J. B. Lully (6:02) Sonata L’Impromptu of L. N. Clérambault (10:45) Sonata in G major. M. Mascitti (16:33) Sonata in D major J-M Leclair (31:30) A note on the program. The violin was no gentleman. Its entry into the world of French music and particularly courtly music was brought about thanks to a series of qualities and strengths all consistant with its basic rough-hewn nature and purpose. Played in Italy by demi-monde dance masters and fiddlers, the violin was a loud, rhythmically aggressive, rule defying tool that starkly contrasted with the nobility and civility of the viol family, so well enthroned as the violin shoved its way into the French church, theater, and salon. Violins accompanied dancing. They elaborated or improvised above familiar bass lines on which celebrants danced. These simple bass melodies were roots to impressive improvisation from the upper voice, the violinist or violinists bedazzling the dancers as a great clarinetist might in the 1940’s dance bands of Benny Goodman. Recognizable tunes like “Just One Of Those Things“ or “Ballo del Granduca“ invited the party celebrants to dance while the imagination of renowned jazzers made the moment remarkable. In a world of developing French courtly refinement the Italian violin might be rejected. But there were qualities that made the instrument superior to the viols. The incisive articulation of the violin added clarity to rhythm in churches making it the ideal instrument to accompany choruses in a repertory of motets and masses that needed energy and clarity rather than restrained velvet elegance. Lully brought with him the Italian materials of Opera and in an act of alchemy and metamorphosis took these dramatic elements and created a French model, the Tragédie Lyrique. Tonight’s Overture from “Roland“ skillfully retooled by Brault as a violin solo was originally played by a five-voiced band of violins. In Lully’s hands, the violin and its family became the band that accompanied the acting singers. Clérambault, the greatest cantata composer of France and a favorite of Mme. de Maintenon, along with Couperin and a new generation of violin players at the end of the 17th century was infected by the sonata craze and composed fine versions, essays in a French solution to the Italian dare. Make the sonata form a French one. But most important, in the hands of Clerambault the violin, rather than accompanying the actor becomes the actor and recites poetry, grand rhetorical gestures as well taking inspiration from the new sonatas from Italy. Michel Mascitti, like Lully, came to France and seems to have dazzled his audiences with Italian power and vitality while integrating French values into his multi movement sonatas. Not yet well known, we are happy to offer this extended Chaconne, filled with imagination. Jean-Marie Leclair, a generation later and a man with one foot on the dance floor and one on the public concert stage, defines for us the violin as the master matinee idol and brings to his compositions (and no doubt his performances) the ancient magic of Marini and predicts Paganini. He is able to inhabit the world of noble expression so rich in Couperin and Clérambault and use grandeur to great effect in movements that require the tragic or statuesque. He is able to create with his bow a color palate that can draw out a Boucher vocabulary of sensuality and color. He is able to transport us to the countryside with images of peasant dance and the hunt as surely as Rameau does in his operas and harpsichord music and this is accomplished by a composer in control of every form. His four books of sonatas attest to his pinnacle position in the world of violin playing, particularly French violin playing. And his sonatas, beginning in Book One as an astute student of Corelli end in a series of sonatas as diverse, imaginative, virtuoso, and thrilling as any composer in any country clearly in tune and in mastery with his or her instrument. Jean-Marie Leclair was an irritating man. He second marriage to Louise Roussel, a fine engraver of music scores, gave him some of the most beautifully printed volumes in 18th century publishing. They separated and all evidence points to a bad relationship. He suffered an over active ego and harsh interactions with his colleagues. He was insulting to his admirers in most of his writings on music. Finally, he was murdered in front of his home, a crime that was never solved but evidence points to an animosity with a nephew. Jean-Marie Leclair, like his violin, was no gentleman. Four Nation’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathie Hochul and the New York State Legislature.