The Centre de musique baroque de Versailles publishes Michel Corrette’s Concerto opus XXVI no. 1. The complete opus is aimed at organists and harpsichordists and offers them different formulas for playing in concert with the strings: one, two or three violins, violin and cello... This No. 1 thus creates a dialogue between one violin and harpsichord, accompanied by an ensemble of strings. Organists will be able to play the harpsichord part at the expense of minimal adaptations. The two soloists are accompanied by a small instrumental string ensemble consisting of two violins, one viola and cello. The concerto unfolds in four movements: Allegro, Aria prima, Aria seconda, both in gavotte tempo, ending with an Allegro. An introductory Largo, unfortunately incomplete, composed earlier, is presented in the appendix.

Corrette was probably inspired by Handel to compose these concertos. On a trip to London, he heard the latter perform his works. He refers to it in the preface to his Nouveau livre de Noëls to justify the addition of an instrumental ensemble to what were basically keyboard works.

Michel Corrette was born in Rouen in 1707 into a family of musicians who moved to Paris in 1720. A defender of Italian music, he was one of the first Frenchmen to publish concertos on the model of Vivaldi, in 1728. Conductor at the Saint Germain and Saint Laurent fairs around 1730, he composed music for the entr’actes, published in the collections of Concertos comiques, the last of which appeared in 1773. As a teacher, he wrote a wide variety of methods for all instruments. As the holder of two important organist posts in the capital, the composition of organ works as well as liturgical works occupied him until an advanced age. He died in 1795, at the age of 87.