Recordings of music by , have become more frequent, especially since the release of the 2023 biopic Chevalier. He certainly is an interesting figure, the son of a Senegalese slave in Guadeloupe who captivated Paris not only as a violinist-composer but as a fencer as well. However, the three violin sonatas here, published in 1781 and written somewhat earlier, have been infrequently heard since first recorded them in 1979. They are worthy of wider exposure. What strikes one immediately is how much the violin has to do in them. Sample the , where it actually carries the main thematic material. On one hand, this is unsurprising, given that was surely performing this music himself. Yet the violin-and-piano sonata, or in the parlance of the day, sonata for keyboard and violin (the keyboard instrument may well have been a harpsichord), was in its infancy at the time and was often little more than a keyboard sonata with violin decoration. was far ahead of, say, the roughly contemporaneous violin sonatas K. - in terms of integrating the violin into the texture. Unlike 's violin concertos, these pieces do not place heavy technical demands on the violinist, and they are in a sparkling and cheerful Parisian melodic idiom that definitely reminds one of 's Parisian works and may have influenced them. Violinist and fortepianist , playing a replica of a instrument, deliver clear but relaxed performances that capture the distinctive melodicism. The studio sound from the label (an offshoot of the contemporary music label ) is clean and idiomatic. An attractive addition to the catalog of available recordings for this much-discussed composer. ~ James Manheim