Laurent Korcia is not only an uncommonly accomplished violinist but also an uncommonly original programmer. One would not normally expect to find Debussy, Ravel and Bartók rubbing shoulders with Wieniawski, Denza, Massenet, Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli and Michel Legrand. It’s a tribute to both his technique and his vision that the juxtaposition is so joyfully successful.

The Reinhardt, Grappelli and Legrand pieces, in which Korcia joins with Florin Niculescu, accompanied by cello and guitar, really do swing, while in the Debussy Sonata (with Michael Wendeberg) Korcia combines exquisitely graceful phrasing with dash and control on his 1719 Stradivarius. Of course, it’s not so much the sheer diversity of musical material that is the CD’s raison d’être as the examples of Korcia working with a diverse range of French performers. This he did in his “Danses” collection, which Ivan March welcomed enthusiastically (4/05). It’s an approach that could have turned this venture into something of a gimmick if individual egos had been allowed to take over. Fortunately not so! Instead, the various partnerships – two violins on three tracks, violin and bandoneon on two, and so on – come together for the greater glory of heartfelt music-making.

The one discordant element for this listener is the crooning of chansonnier Jean-Louis Aubert in the closing Massenet and Denza items – 19th-century salon music through and through. Yet even that is a small enough price to pay for what is overall such gloriously fresh and exhilarating entertainment.