Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe's life is largely shrouded in mystery, and almost nothing was known of his music until these Concerts à deux violes esgales were discovered in Geneva in 1966. Full of inspiration and fantasy, these pieces are often technically very demanding, innovatively deploying the viol's entire range and putting players to the test in ways that were unprecedented in French viol literature. The sound of the viols is as haunting as the music's titles are teasingly expressive, and for their extraordinary imagination, originality and rare sonic splendor these works are justly considered one of the great monuments of European Baroque music.