World-premiere recordings of chamber-music collections by an overlooked master of the French Baroque.

With two previous collections for Brilliant Classics – the Premier livre de pièces d’orgue on 2 CDs and Trois Livres de Pieces de Clavecin on 4 CDs – Pieter-Jan Belder has become the pre-eminent modern exponent of Jean-François Dandrieu, as reflected by the enthusiastic welcome in Fanfare for the organ volume: ‘The playing here... is simply terrific. [Belder] has completely absorbed the French Baroque idiom as a native musical tongue and speaks it with absolute fluency... For anyone who loves the organ repertoire of the French Baroque, this is an essential purchase; highly recommended.’

In this latest collection, Belder invites the listener to delve further into the output of this Parisian musician, who left behind precious few examples of his art on his death in 1739, but who won the admiration of both fellow musicians and royal patrons, most notably Louis XV. Published as Opus 1 in 1705 and Opus 2 around five years later, these collections of trio sonatas and violin sonatas represent a thorough and skilful assimilation of ‘modern’ Italian grammar – and most notably the influence of Corelli – into French gesture and style.

Opus 1 represents a remarkably mature and purposeful integration of styles: at just 23, Dandrieu confidently asserts a distinct voice by seamlessly integrating the expressive nuances of the French harpsichord school into this Italian framework. Dandrieu’s Op.2 sonatas do not merely reflect Italian influence; they actively transform it: in their formal clarity and expressive depth they embody both the elegance of Versailles and the vitality of Rome.

To complete this volume, Pieter-Jan Belder plays three books of harpsichord pieces from Dandrieu’s accomplished youth: most of them very brief dances, no more than a minute long, deftly sketching an idea for the equal enjoyment of performer and listener. Like the chamber music sets, these have never been recorded complete before, and the set as a whole advances our appreciation for Dandrieu as a major figure of the French Baroque.