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Anne-Jeanne Cassanéa de Mondonville was a celebrated French keyboardist. Born in 1708, her father was a patron of the arts and a collector of paintings who arranged for her to study the harpsichord with Jean-Philippe Rameau. Anne-Jeanne was particularly known for her excellent sight-reading and performed regularly at salon concerts hosted by patron of the arts Antoine Crozat. Three prominent composers named pieces after her: Rameau in his Pièces de clavecin en concert, Jacques Duphly in his Pièces de clavecin, and Jean-Baptiste Barrière in his Sonates et pièces pour le clavecin.
She and her husband, violinist and composer Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, were the subjects of pastel portraits by Maurice Quentin de Latour. In her portrait, there is a manuscript with the title Pièces de clavecin de madame de Mondonville on the harpsichord behind her. Unfortunately, no such manuscript with her compositions survives. By all accounts she had a happy marriage; her husband’s collection of Pièces de clavecin avec voix ou violon, published about a year after their wedding, was most likely written in her honour. – Rona Nadler |
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