From today’s perspective Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764) was the most important violinist of the 18th-century in France. His influence on music and the violin was so great that he is even described as the founder of the French violin school.

In 1733 Leclair’s success finally led to a position at the court of Louis XV as an “ordinaire de la musique du roy”. For the king, however, it was not enough to take only one outstanding violinist into his orchestra, but shortly afterwards he engaged Jean-Pierre Guignon (1702-1774) and later Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (1705-1770), also evenly matched rivals, which led to a violent long-standing power struggle.

This rivalry was stimulating, and there emerged from the court of Louis XV an exciting repertoire of French violin music which is worth rediscovering today. With the Baroque violinist Leila Schayegh and her accompanist Jörg Halubek, this journey of discovery has been made with top-class performers - Schayegh's last CD of sonatas by Franz Benda won the Diapason d'or in 2012.