Michel Blavet was the most celebrated French flautist during the first half of the eighteenth century. A younger contemporary of Rameau and Leclair, he appeared frequently at the Paris Concert Spirituel during the 1720s, 1730s and 1740s where his performances were admired both by his fellow countrymen and by musicians and connoisseurs from further afield. Telemann named him in the later of his autobiographical sketches as the flautist who took part in the first performances of his Nouveaux quatuors (1738): ''If only words were enough to describe the wonderful way in which the quartets were played by Herr Blavet...''
Masahiro Arita has chosen five sonatas in all, three from Blavet's Op. 2 (1732), and two from Op. 3 (1740). With only a single rival in The Classical Catalogue it is unfortunate that three of the works are duplicated. The rival version which I reviewed favourably, is by the French flautist, Philippe Allain-Dupre on Le Chant du Monde. Both artists play baroque flutes and appropriately include a bass viol in the continuo together with harpsichord and, in the case of Allain-Dupre, a plucked string instrument, too. By and large Arita prefers more leisurely tempos than Allain-Dupre and his playing contains a greater degree of refinement. But I sometimes felt that it lacked a lively spontaneity present in the other. Arita's recording, furthermore, affords too much prominence to the continuo instruments which, in an altogether more spacious balance than the Le Chant du Monde disc, tends to obscure the middle and lower range of the flute tessitura.
Making a choice between the two is difficult. Allain-Dupre plays six as opposed to five sonatas and his more sharply defined rhythmic approach suits both the character and the nationality of the music. Arita is less naturally and less distinctively French in his interpretations though he is, perhaps the more fluent, technically—the lively and in this instance Italianate allegro second movement of the Sonata in D major (Op. 3 No. 6) is executed with admirable precision and infectious esprit. Allain-Dupre's Sonata in A major (Op. 3 No. 4), a comparably virtuosic piece, though undoubtedly effective, sounds precipitous at times. Neither of these sonatas is duplicated, and I should certainly want them both. So there, perhaps, is the solution to a difficult problem. It is time we had all these sonatas, they are well worth becoming acquainted with.'