Uploaded April 2009 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
JEAN-BAPTISTE BARRIÈRE (1707 - 1747)
Trio Sonata for alto recorder, cello, and basso continuo in D minor Livre II No. 2
1. Adagio
2. Allegro
3. Aria largo
4. Gigue
Performed by members of Amarilis
Héloïse Gaillard, alto recorder
Ophélie Gaillard, cello
Violaine Cochard, harpsichord
Anne-Marie Lasla, viola da gamba
*Jean-Baptiste Barrière was a French cellist and composer. He was born in Bordeaux, and died in Paris, at 40 years of age.
Barrière first studied the viol, and published a set of viol sonatas. In due course however he became a skilled cellist during a period when the cello was gaining popularity over the viol in France, and later came to completely replace it, as indeed had already happened in Italy some 40 years prior. He became one of the best known virtuoso cellists of his time.
In 1731 he went to Paris, and entered the Academie Royale de Musique, i.e. the Opera, on an annual salary of 445 livres. He was accorded special privileges by King Louis XV at Fontainebleau, on 22 October 1733 for six years to compose and publish several sonatas and other instrumental works. One of his most famous pupils was the Count of Guergorlay, Seigneur of Trousily. After his first book Livre I - Sonates pour violoncelle et basse continue was a success, in November 1733, he published a second edition of it in 1740. His second book, Livre II, was published around 1735.
He went to Italy in 1736 to study with the well-known Italian cellist Franceso Alborea, known as Franciscello, who during that time seems to have also been employed in Vienna from 1726 until 1739. He undertook a further long tour in Italy in April 1737 and returned to Paris in summer of 1738, to appear at the renowned Concert Spirituel on 15 August and 8 September where he impressed his audience with "grand precision", according to the local press. In 1739, a new 12-year privilege was granted to him at Versailles, and registered on 5 January 1740. in that year he published his Livre III, and other works followed suit in the year after. He died at a relatively young age of 40 years, at the pinnacle of his creativity.
Whilst not well-known to the general public today, Barrière was so renowned a few years after his death that Pierre-Louis Daquin de Chateau-Lyon did not hesitate to describe him as: "the famous Barrière, deceased only recently, possessed all that one can desire...few could perform as well as he".
JEAN-BAPTISTE BARRIÈRE (1707 - 1747)
Trio Sonata for alto recorder, cello, and basso continuo in D minor Livre II No. 2
1. Adagio
2. Allegro
3. Aria largo
4. Gigue
Performed by members of Amarilis
Héloïse Gaillard, alto recorder
Ophélie Gaillard, cello
Violaine Cochard, harpsichord
Anne-Marie Lasla, viola da gamba
*Jean-Baptiste Barrière was a French cellist and composer. He was born in Bordeaux, and died in Paris, at 40 years of age.
Barrière first studied the viol, and published a set of viol sonatas. In due course however he became a skilled cellist during a period when the cello was gaining popularity over the viol in France, and later came to completely replace it, as indeed had already happened in Italy some 40 years prior. He became one of the best known virtuoso cellists of his time.
In 1731 he went to Paris, and entered the Academie Royale de Musique, i.e. the Opera, on an annual salary of 445 livres. He was accorded special privileges by King Louis XV at Fontainebleau, on 22 October 1733 for six years to compose and publish several sonatas and other instrumental works. One of his most famous pupils was the Count of Guergorlay, Seigneur of Trousily. After his first book Livre I - Sonates pour violoncelle et basse continue was a success, in November 1733, he published a second edition of it in 1740. His second book, Livre II, was published around 1735.
He went to Italy in 1736 to study with the well-known Italian cellist Franceso Alborea, known as Franciscello, who during that time seems to have also been employed in Vienna from 1726 until 1739. He undertook a further long tour in Italy in April 1737 and returned to Paris in summer of 1738, to appear at the renowned Concert Spirituel on 15 August and 8 September where he impressed his audience with "grand precision", according to the local press. In 1739, a new 12-year privilege was granted to him at Versailles, and registered on 5 January 1740. in that year he published his Livre III, and other works followed suit in the year after. He died at a relatively young age of 40 years, at the pinnacle of his creativity.
Whilst not well-known to the general public today, Barrière was so renowned a few years after his death that Pierre-Louis Daquin de Chateau-Lyon did not hesitate to describe him as: "the famous Barrière, deceased only recently, possessed all that one can desire...few could perform as well as he".
