Exactly a year after their debut recording featuring the music of Michel de la Barre, the Montreal based Baroque music ensemble The Opus Project have focused their attention on another unjustly overlooked French musician and composer, Michel Pignolet de Montéclair (1667-1737). He was first and foremost a music teacher, with pedagogical books to his name. He wasn't a prolific composer, with the brunt of his music written for stage and opera productions, and could easily be considered a link between Lully and Rameau. Nontheless, these Concerts (Suites) for Flute and basso continuo, laid out over as much as 16 separate movements, are exceptionally well written and highly entertaining, which begs the question as to why his music is not performed or recorded more often.

Once again Joanna Marsden (baroque flute), Christophe Gauthier (harpsichord), Margaret Little (viola da gamba) and Daniel Zuluaga (theorbo), plunge deep within the printed score and bring out the music's blend of aristocratic elegance and lively frivolous vitality. With descriptive titles like La Florentine, Le Rémouleur (knife grinder and sharpener), La Joyeuse, the music conveys, in its own way, various aspects of everyday life from the mundane to the lofty. The Opus Project's attention to expressive detail brings the music to life, and lends each individual movement its own character.

This 2-Disc set of all four Concerts containing over 54 movements, is sure to captivate and amuse baroque music enthusiasts eager to hear music off the beaten path.