Reviews  |  Instrumental

Galuppi

Piano Sonatas - in G, Levi CF B130; in C;

in D minor; in B Flat; in C minor; in A minor;

in B flat, Levi CF C26

Andrea Bacchetti pf

RCA Red Seal 88697 36793-2 (69' • DDD)

 
Eloquent, affecting performances of

a carefully chosen selection of sonatas

"... Oh, they praised you, I dare say! /'Brave Galuppi! That was music! Good alike at grave and gay! ... "
To which particular toccata Robert Browning was referring in his poem

"A Toccata of Galuppi's" remains unknown. And why Galuppi? In 1855, when the poem was written, the reference to this forgotten Venetian must have baffled Browning's readers; yet apparently Browning, a competent pianist, owned two manuscript volumes of his music. It's easy to see why he was taken with it, and his "grave and gay" characterisation is apt.

As an introduction to Galuppi's music, those who do not have Michelangeli's famous recording of the Sonata No 5 in C can watch him play it on You Tube.

Galuppi (l706-85) composed over 100 keyboard sonatas, the scores of which remain uncatalogued and scattered among various European libraries. Andrea Bacchetti and Mario Marcarini have trawled some of these to produce their own edition of the present selection, the latter contributing an excellent essay on the subject available on the CD in downloadable PDF form.

If wit and exuberance dominate Scarlatti's sonatas, introspection and melancholy are where Galuppi excels, though when he chooses to he can scamper about with equal panache (try the Presto of the D minor Sonata). Bacchetti rises to the occasion. The writing of the Adagios and Larghettos of these eight two-movement sonatas is simplicity itself, well within the reach of the average amateur, but it takes a real musician to make them speak as eloquently and affectingly as here, reminding us of the more plaintive of the Goldberg Variations of which Bacchetti made a notable recording last year. Jeremy Nicholas