Jean-Joseph de Mondonville (1711-1772) - Sonate (I) en trio, œuvre II (1734)
Channel: Pau NG
Date: 08/10/2021

★ Follow music ► https://www.instagram.com/reciclassicat/

Composer: Jean-Joseph de Mondonville (1711-1772)
Work: Sonate (I) en trio, œuvre II (1734)
Performers: Fiona Howes (flute); Carl Dolmetsch (1911-1997, recorder); Andrew Pledge (cembalo); Marguerite Dolmetsch (viola da gamba)

Painting: Louis-Michel Dumesnil (1680-1746) - The Reception of Cornelis Hop (1685-1762) as Legate of the States-General at the Court of Louis XV, 24 July 1719
Image in high resolution: https://flic.kr/p/2mxKxX1
Painting: Maurice Quentin de Latour (1704-1788) - Portrait of Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville (c.1746)
Image in high resolution: https://flic.kr/p/2mxKxUv

Further info: http://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/5/53/IMSLP261560-PMLP424190-mondonville_sonatas_em_trio.pdf
Listen free: https://open.spotify.com/album/6zT7FExtaxig2nXzXc7Ldy

---

Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
(Narbonne, bap. 25 December 1711 - Belleville, 8 October 1772)

French composer, violinist and conductor. With Jean-Philippe Rameau, he was one of the outstanding figures of French music in the 18th century. He probably received his musical education from his father, who was organist of Narbonne Cathedral. In 1731 he settled in Paris and made his début as a violinist at the Concert Spirituel on Palm Sunday 1734, on which occasion the Mercure de France praised him for his virtuosity. At about this time he also published his first collections of instrumental music, a set of violin sonatas op.1 (1733) and the Sonates en trio op.2 (1734). He was first violin in the Concert de Lille when, in 1738, he published Les sons harmoniques op.4, a set of violin sonatas with an introduction setting out, for the first time, the technique of playing harmonics on the violin by lightly touching an open string. On 1 April 1739, he was appointed violinist of the royal chamber and chapel. Mondonville's first grands motets, performed at Versailles in 1738, met with great success at the Concert Spirituel the following year. The Mercure de France (April 1739) stated that the fame of the ‘young master’ was now established not only as a violinist but also as a composer. He was extremely busy at this time; in 1739 he received fees for about 100 concerts in Versailles, Compiègne, Fontainebleau and Marly. In July 1740 Mondonville acquired the reversion of André Campra's post as sous-maître of the royal chapel and acceded to the position itself on 4 March 1744 on the death of Charles-Hubert Gervais; but, since he was not permitted to publish the motets he composed for the chapel, he resigned the post in 1758. He was also pursuing his career as a violinist, performing both as a soloist and with the flautist Michel Blavet, the violinist Jean-Pierre Guignon and the singer Marie Fel, for whom he wrote a violin concerto with a vocal part (now lost) given at the Concert Spirituel in 1747. 

In 1748 Mondonville married the harpsichordist Anne Jeanne Boucon (1708-1780), a pupil of Rameau to whom Jean Barrière, Jacques Duphly and Rameau himself all dedicated harpsichord pieces; their son, Maximilien Joseph (1749–1804), became an amateur violinist and oboist. In June 1748 Mondonville became associated with Pancrace Royer in the organization of the Concert Spirituel. On Royer's death in 1755 he became director of the Concert, with Capperan, until July 1762, when Antoine Dauvergne obtained the privilege for a nine-year period. As conductor of the orchestra Mondonville introduced various innovations from 1755 onwards, including organ concertos by Claude Balbastre, who also entertained the audience by playing organ adaptations of Mondonville's overtures to Daphnis et Alcimadure and Titon et l'Aurore. Mondonville also included in the programmes symphonies by Gossec and by foreign composers such as Holzbauer and Wagenseil. His own works were very popular. Up to 1791 Mondonville was the composer most frequently played at the Concert Spirituel; with 39 pieces on the programmes, and a total of 510 performances, he comes ahead of Lalande (31 pieces and 421 performances) in the repertory of the Concert from the time of its creation. His motets – in which the influence of Lalande is perceptible – were extremely successful, both the grands motets with chorus (Dominus regnavit, Magnus Dominus, Jubilate Deo, Coeli enarrant) and the petits motets for solo voice (Regina coeli, Simulacra gentium) forming part of the basic repertory of the Concert Spirituel.