Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonatas for violin & harpsichord [2CD]

Christophe Rousset


It was when he was growing up in Aix-en-Provence that Christophe Rousset developed a passion for the Baroque aesthetic. Instead of studying archaeology, he decided when only thirteen to satisfy this pronounced taste for discovering the past through a career in music, by studying the harpsichord. This led him to the Schola Cantorum in Paris, with Huguette Dreyfus, then to the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the class of Bob van Asperen. At the age of 22 he won the prestigious first prize and audience prize at the seventh International Harpsichord Competition in Bruges (1983).
It was also in Aix, at the same time, that he grew to love opera and the stage through attending the rehearsals for the Opera Festival: it was here that he felt the first stirrings of emotion for opera which still guide him today.
He soon came to the attention of the international press and the record companies as a harpsichordist, and then began, first with Les Arts Florissants and then with Il Seminario Musicale, a conducting career which logically led to his founding, in 1991, his own ensemble Les Talens Lyriques.
He then breathed into this group his own enthusiasm as a conductor and a scholar, and very quickly reached the top echelon of the 'Baroque movement' on both the French and international scenes.
With engagements in specialised festivals around the world, numerous recordings (for Harmonia Mundi, L'Oiseau-Lyre, Fnac Music , Emi-Virgin, Decca, Naive and Ambroisie), soundtracks of successful films (Farinelli), in a few short seasons Christophe Rousset established his image as a gifted young conductor, hard-working, meticulous, passionate about voices and opera, an indefatigable discoverer of neglected scores (Traetta, Jommelli, Desmarest, Danielis, Melani, Bononcini, Leo, Gossec), while still remaining a soloist and chamber musician at the top of his profession, a committed and tireless teacher.
His projects have led him to explore musical Europe of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: operas, cantatas, oratorios, sonatas, symphonies, concertos, suites - he untiringly illuminates every form that has contributed to the history of music before Rossini, and offers his own quite personal manner of 'serving' music.
His extensive discography as a harpsichordist features benchmark recordings of the complete works of François Couperin, Rameau, d'Anglebert, Forqueray, as well as regular and equally acclaimed incursions into the world of J. S. Bach (the Partitas, the Goldberg Variations, the harpsichord concertos and the English Suites).
His recordings at the head of Les Talens Lyriques include a number of great critical and commercial successes, among them Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Mozart's Mitridate, the overtures of Rameau and Lully's Persée.
Christophe Rousset is an Officier des Arts et Lettres, and teaches the harpsichord at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.


Stefano Montanari

After obtaining a diploma cum laude in violin and piano, Stefano Montanari then received a specialist diploma in chamber music under Maestro Pier Narciso Masi at the Music Academy of Florence, and a solo diploma under Maestro Carlo Chiarappa at the Swiss-Italian School of Music in Lugano. His interest in historical research with philological aims led him to focus his attention on the study of contemporary performance practice using authentic instruments. Since 1995 he has been leader of the Accademia Bizantina of Ravenna under the direction of Maestro Ottavio Dantone.
He is also leader of the Joseph Joachim Quartet, which specialises in historically informed performances of quartets of the eighteenth and nineteenth century played on period instruments. He has held masterclasses in Baroque violin and chamber music for the Arturo Toscanini Foundation of Parma, the Giaochino Rossini Conservatory of Music in Pesaro, and the Piacenza Conservatory.
He performs with the leading exponents in the field of early music, and in particular with Christophe Rousset and his ensemble Les Talens Lyriques.
He is currently also Konzertmeister of Concerto Köln.
He has recorded with such labels as Fone, Frequenz, Denon, Opus 111, Erato, Virgin, Tactus, Astrée, Thymalus, Simphonia, La bottega discantica, Arts, and Decca. From 1993 to 1999 he taught at the Swiss-Italian School of Music of Lugano. He currently teaches Baroque violin at the International Academy of Music in Milan, the Bruno Maderna Conservatory in Cesena (second-level course), and the Dall'Abaco Conservatory in Verona.
In the autumn of 2006, as part of the opera season of the orchestra I pomeriggi musicali di Milano (in collaboration with the As.Li. Co.), he will conduct Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro.