For Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, like for most French composers of his day, life took a turn for the better the day he left his native town and moved to Paris. In the capital he found employment as a music teacher for the Prince of Vaudémont, who took him along on a trip to Italy; there Montéclair perfected his study of the double bass, an instrument in which he was quite proficient, becoming, once back in Paris, a member of the orchestra of the Opéra. Montéclair died on 22 November 1737. He has left us a considerable number of compositions, both vocal and instrumental; among them, and the six Concerts pour la flute traversière avec la basse chifrée, published in 1724/25, which include the four Concerts featured on this CD. It ought to be said that the term Concert had for Montéclair a different meaning than it would have for an Italian (or a German) composer of his day; in this connotation, though, we frequently find it used by 17th- and 18th-century French composers. The Concerts pour la flute traversière avec la basse chifrée, as its title specifies, consists of six concertos for German (transverse) flute, the instrument that was then beginning to oust the recorder from the favours of amateur musicians. They are ample collections of pieces that are often very different in character from one another.