Senallié was
one of the Trojan Horses who infiltrated
the Italian Violin School into the melodically
enchanting Parisian music houses. Other
composers who shared his taste for the
virtuosically challenging, such as Leclair
and Francoeur, have been well represented
on disc – the former certainly, the
latter maybe less so – but Senallié
is another matter.
For years his works
were not represented at all on disc.
Back in the days of 78 the only way
to get Senallié was to submit
to the indignity of transposition and
arrangement. There were no violin recordings
in the 78 age to my knowledge, only
cello arrangements. If you fancied a
few minutes with him you needed to cosy
up to W.H. Squire or Cedric Sharpe –
British cellists were especially fond
of these works – or if you really wanted
to fly the kite Archie Camden served
up something on his bassoon. Even now
his is a name better known in the breach.
On the evidence of
the Three Books of Sonatas he got progressively
less interesting. The first two books
are certainly infused with Corellian
novelty and lyricism. And whilst it
would be quite wrong to say that the
third Book lacks these qualities they
certainly don’t exists in such profusion
as the earlier collections. All conform
to the four-movement sonata di chiesa
plan. And all bear the unmistakeable
stamp of Italian lyricism. Sometimes
there are arresting things; try the
expressive largo of the First Sonata
or the occasional dissonances of the
opening Adagio of the Fourth. Then again
we have the flourishing and rhetorical
panache of the Preludio that opens the
(uniquely in this set) five-movement
Eighth. Or the folk drones throughout,
or the lightly elegant Allemanda of
the Tenth Sonata, a sonata that features
in its Gavotte the unlikely event of
a harpsichord solo.
These are all valuable
features but for the main the sonatas
show a far less personalised and less
virtuosically entertaining profile than
the first two books. This is not always
a bad thing but it can limit contrast
and colour. If I had to select a book
it would be the 1710 but our appreciation
and understanding of Senallié
can only be deepened by this exploration
of the 1716 book – especially since
this is by a long way the most complete
account in the catalogues; isolated
movements are all that exist elsewhere.
The Ensemble Baroques-Graffiti
is an original instrument trio – violin
(Jarosław
Adamus) and harpsichord and cello. The
violinist has an stringent and rather
wiry tone which can be characteristically
bulgy. The harpsichord continuo is absent
for a number of these sonatas leaving
the cello to support the violin, which
it does adeptly. I can imagine
someone like Manze investing these sonatas
with greater fantasy and colour – also
I suspect slower tempi. But not even
he would convert them to the status
of masterpieces.
Jonathan Woolf
Full
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