Following on from their critically acclaimed Resonus debut of duets by Johann Joachim Quantz, the Elysium Ensemble have recorded an album of the Six Sonates, Op. 51, by French composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755). The second in a series of releases based on research into historical performance practice sees Elysium principles Greg Dikmans (flute) and Lucinda Moon (violin) continue their exploration of neglected and lesser-known works continuing the theme of ‘The Art of Elegant Conversation’. Prolific in his lifetime, publishing over 100 collections of Suites, Sonatas and other instrumental music, Boismortier’s great depth and imagination comes through in these duos for flute and violin brought to life with great panache by the Elysium Ensemble.

Stephen Schultz takes on the daunting task of playing all five parts of these Concerti for Five Flutes from Boismortier - a feat never before attempted or accomplished! The French composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier wrote a great deal of popular music. The transverse flute was his favorite instrument and he considerably extended its repertory. Boismortier's music demonstrates great facility, and one regrets that he wrote so few works on a large scale.

Composing came easily to Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689–1755). Having arrived in Paris in 1724, he embarked on writing what would become a vast catalogue of instrumental music focused on the flute (or recorder), which so tickled the palates of his bourgeois and aristocratic audiences and amateur performers, and of which he was himself a considerable practitioner. In particular the works for paired flutes reveal a fluency of style that speaks eloquently for Boismortier’s fluency as a composer. The six duets collected here are first and foremost music to enjoy, both in the playing and the listening. Boismortier’s duets reflect the rhetorical principle of elegant and refined conversation, a musical translation of intimate dialogue between two equals, neither of which is ever reduced to the role of mere accompaniment. The prevailing rule is imitation or agreement: when a theme is stated by one player it is taken over by the other and developed, never challenged or opposed. Even the three duets in his first published collection, Op.1, provide ample proof of Boismortier’s lively creative spirit as well as his skill in counterpoint, designed to attract professional players keen to show off their technical and expressive expertise. The movement titles within each duet may encapsulate French dance forms – Gavotte, Allemande, Courante and so on – but Boismortier was far too cultivated and cosmopolitan a musician not to absorb influences from farther afield. His contrapuntal style makes him the French equivalent of Telemann, and the busy passagework recall the violin writing of Italian Baroque masters such as Corelli and Geminiani.

Imitations of country life enjoyed great success during the reign of Louis XV. In musical terms, popular instruments such as the hurdy-gurdy and the musette enjoyed a truly golden age and inspired a vast repertoire that often evoked rural pleasures. These instruments were not only played by aristocratic amateurs but also by professional virtuosi such as l’illustre Danguy and Colin Charpentier, who delighted the French court as well as the audiences of the Concert spirituel. These imitations of rural life combine with instrumental virtuosity to form the basis of this programme, in which we hear the hurdy-gurdy and the musette in instrumental works and cantatas.

We are around the time of the Regency, at the political crossroads between Louis XIV and Louis XV. The viola da gamba was enjoying its last hours of glory in France, while the violin was beginning to take centre stage. The Golden Hour, which generally refers to the periods after sunrise and before sunset when the light changes, evokes here those years of convergence, even confrontation, between a viola da gamba in the twilight of its life and a violin at the dawn of its soloist destiny.