More (Inexplicably) Obscure French Baroque Music

This was playing during the last 15 minutes of my Journey Back From Gallup yesterday. It’s the first movement of a sonata by French violinist and composer Jean-Joseph de Mondonville (who is also known as Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, just in case the first moniker seemed too terse to anyone), and it’s really, really fine stuff. Sort of Rameau Meets Corelli, with A Dash of Red-Headed Priest (and at least a hint of Boccherini, which is just confusing).

Now, I’m on the record as being willing — even eager — to listen to Baroque Music above just about anything else, so I’m not entirely unbiased. But this is still one of the finer recent examples of Unknowns That Should Probably Be Better Known that I’ve run across of late. Great stuff, really, and a reminder that there’s no accounting for fame.

My favorite part from his Wiki-Bio?

“…born in Narbonne in Southwest France to an aristocratic family which had fallen on hard times, he moved to Paris where he gained the patronage of the king’s mistress Madame de Pompadour…”

Attribution(s): “Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville” by Maurice Quentin de La Tour is licensed under Public Domain via Commons.