Marin Marais’s 1723 collection La gamme et autres morceaux de symphonie comes between his fourth (1717) and fifth (1725) Livres de pièces de violes and differs from them in giving the violin centre stage. Indeed, despite François Couperin’s move in this direction, it was still unusual in French music to so prominently highlight the violin’s soloistic qualities – this was still more the preserve of Italian music.

To be more accurate, of the three works that comprise the collection, and are included here, only the Sonate à la Maresienne is a violin sonata proper, with the bass viol relegated to continuo duties along with the harpsichord and theorbo. La gamme en forme de petit opéra and the famous Sonnerie de Sainte Geneviève du Mont are – another innovation by Marais – a conversation among equals, the violin and viol engaging in sometimes sparkling, sometimes lugubrious dialogue with each other, a second viol in the continuo occasionally foregrounded in trio sonata-like textures.

Whereas a band such as the excellent Les Timbres eschew the extra depth and colours provided by a second viol and theorbo in favour of a lighter, more transparent buoyancy and incisiveness, the intriguingly named The Scale Knitters bring the requisite darkness and drama to La gamme, as its subtitle suggests, with greater sonority. Here, violinist Fiona-Émilie Poupard and bass violist Marion Martineau dispatch ascending and descending scalic figures, mournful suspensions, rapid divisions and cantabile lyricisms alike with truly operatic élan.

And if Poupard is affectingly elegant in the Sonate – the Sarabande and Gigue are especially fine – she and Martineau, supported by the tasteful realisations of Atsushi Sakai (bass viol), Magnus Andersson (theorbo) and Brice Sailly (harpsichord), relish the mesmeric qualities of Sonnerie de Sainte Geneviève du Mont with an improvisatory swagger not heard since Jordi Savall and Fabio Biondi (Alia Vox, 7/02).