Ryo Terakado, Eun-Shik Kim: L’Apothéose de Corelli

The Strad Issue: April 2026

Description: A celebration of the Baroque trio sonata proves irresistible

Musicians: Ryo Terakado, Eun-Shik Kim (violins) Kaori Uemura (viola da gamba) François Guerrier (harpsichord)

Works: Leclair: Deuxième Récréation de Musique op.8; Ouvertures and Trio Sonatas op.13: no.5, Aria from no.6. Corelli: Trio Sonatas: op.3 no.8, op.2 no.12. Couperin: Le Parnasse ou L’Apothéose de Corelli, grande sonade en trio

Catalogue number: CHALLENGE CLASSICS CC720033

This programme highlights Corelli’s impact on the style of Leclair and François Couperin’s trio sonatas. These performers give an elegant account of Corelli’s op.3 no.8, displaying intuitive contrapuntal interplay in the Allegros, enjoying its third movement’s expressive suspensions and adding affecting ornamentation in both Largos; they also dispatch op.2 no.12’s single-movement Ciaccona with panache.

They reproduce the fictional scenarios (narrated here) of Couperin’s L’Apothéose… with careful consideration for ‘goût réuni’, swinging Corellian fugato movements slightly ‘à la française’ and characterising the flowing waters of Hippocrene and Lullian operatic sleep scene as directed with ‘soft, equal legato notes’.

Leclair’s music represents the mixed style’s pinnacle, as amply demonstrated in his op.8 no.2 sequence comprising a tragic overture, dramatic chaconne and various French dances. Although Ryo Terakado and Eun-Shik Kim take little heed of certain instructions in the Forlane and Sarabande, they give the Menuet a nice swing and relish the Badinage and Tambourin’s joie de vivre.

They also engage in spirited exchanges in op.13 no.5’s outer movements and subtly interweave their melancholic lines in its Largo and op.13 no.6’s unaccompanied Aria.

Despite moments of imbalance, the recording allows the sonorities of two outstanding Milanese violins to resonate clearly in a spacious church acoustic.

ROBIN STOWELL