I was enthusiastic about this Versailles anthology when it was first released ten years ago. The programme consists of two cantatas by Monteclair, pieces for bass viol by Marais and the younger Forqueray, two airs serieux by Couperin, his suite ''La Francaise'', published in 1726 as part of Les Nations, and a violin sonata by Leclair. The soprano Judith Nelson is allocated all the vocal pieces and very attractively she performs them, too. Monteclair's Pan et Syrinx is a cantata which reveals the composer's considerable gifts in this medium and there are rival versions in The Classical Catalogue. His Le Triomfe de la Constance, a less ambitious piece, has a very beguiling concluding air and this cantata, to the best of my knowledge is represented by no other recording. The two solo string players are first-rate: Monica Huggett is incisive, sweet-toned and, in the Leclair virtuosic, while Christophe Coin is imaginative, rhetorical and technically assured. The Forqueray is bold and forthright and the Tableau de l'operation de la taille (''Operation for the removal of a stone'') not without a feeling for black comedie. And in the resonant Sonnerie de Sainte Genevieve du Mont Huggett and Coin sustain a lively partnership with Christopher Hogwood.
Here is programme making which is well-balanced, entertaining and performed with finesse. A most welcome reissue, well recorded and with an informative introduction by Lucy Robinson. Buy it.'