Concert review: Chouchane Siranossian (violin) Leonardo García Alarcón (harpsichord) Daniel Rosin (cello)

To sit in Sans Souci Palace’s Ovid Gallery with a view of the gardens behind it is a pleasure in itself, one that very much enhanced the high-wire virtuosity act given by Chouchane Siranossian in a programme showcasing the 18th-century French and Italian violin schools. Marin Marais is best known for his intricate viol pieces, but his suite-like Sonate à la Marésienne finds him in a lighter mood that was beautifully caught by Siranossian throughout its various short sections. Stakes swiftly rose in Leclair’s Sonata op.9 no.8, a piece that includes some sophisticated double-stopping and left-hand extensions, culminating in an elaborate Tempo di ciaccona that in Siranossian’s reading achieved impressive momentum.

The violinist relished the rhetorical potential of Locatelli’s Sonata op.6 no.12, shaping its extended cadenza-like passages most expressively. Her insistent syncopations over a thrumming bass were exhilarating, as was her rendition of the piece’s concluding Capriccio, which saw her ascending way beyond the fingerboard’s end in seemingly unending sequential runs. Tartini’s ‘Devil’s Trill’ included a few intriguing readings in its first movement (apparently inspired by the rules of musica ficta), as well as some trilling devilry at the appropriate moments.

Siranossian had two imaginatively proactive continuo players at her side, Leonardo García Alarcón magically matching her tone in, for example, Marais’s Sarabande with the harpsichord’s ‘lute’ register, and Daniel Rosin vividly shaping the bass line throughout, always at the ready for some imitative embellishments.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE