warblingQUIRE Records Ltd proudly presents a world-premiere recording consisting of a set of seven violin sonatas written for violin and continuo and attributed to a French Baroque theoretician and composer named Denis Delair (the last of the seven sonatas was written for two violins and continuo). The early music world knows Delair as the author of an important treatise on harmony and basso continuo (1690), but his compositions had not been located in the modern era (until now). Members of the ensemble, The Levée, identified a manuscript purporting to be Delair’s Violin Sonatas in the collection of Uppsala University in Sweden (the Düben Collection). This collection is an enormous compendium of original manuscripts maintained by a group of Swedish court musicians from roughly 1640 to 1726. The ensemble were able to positively identify the sonatas attributed to Delair in the collection by comparing the continuo parts with Delair’s treatise.

The Levée is a baroque chamber group comprised of early music specialists (baroque violin, viola da gamba, harpsichord and theorbo, with an additional guest baroque violinist). Their website https://www. the-levee.com/the-ensemble includes bios for the artists and a link to a promotional video for the album: https://youtu.be/eCeJpRZBRXM.

Both the ensemble’s website and the label’s website (https://warblingquire.com/) have further details on (i) the story behind the name “the Levée,” (ii) the composer of the music featured on this world-premiere recording (Denis Delair), and (iii) the story of the re-discovery of the manuscript in modern times and what makes this a world premiere recording.