Rebel: Violin Sonatas

Jean-Féry Rebel had a Top 40 hit in the '80s with his ballet score Les Elemens, which began with a depiction of chaos that sounded as though Charles Ives had written it. You won't find anything that drastic in this collection, but you will find a great deal (78 minutes) of highly expressive music in the best French Baroque style. (The music is intense enough so that one really shouldn't listen to it all at once.) Rebel isn't the greatest genius France produced, but he sometimes sounds like it in these performances. Manze plays every line with affecting commitment and some very stylish embellishments. His colleagues are full-strength collaborators, enriching the texture and expressiveness of the music, and the recording makes it easy to hear everyone. For lovers of Baroque music, this disc will be a real discovery. --Leslie Gerber