Platti, Giovanni Benedetto (1697-1763). Up until a few years ago, any judgement concerning the creative personality of Platti was based exclusively upon an analysis of his sonatas for harpsichord, together with a handful of his other works. This fact contributed to the inclusion of this composer from the Veneto in the company of so- called 'minor' composers of the eighteenth century, such names as G.B. Pescetti, D. Alberti, M. Vento, F. Pellegrini, G.M. Rutini, etc. In recent times, however, nearly all of Platti's production has been studied, and the results are overwhelmingly convincing that it in fact contains unquestionable masterpieces such as the Requiem Mass, the Stabat Mater, the Concerto for violin, some of the most beautiful concertos ever written for the violoncello, and many other works of notable interest. Thus Platti music may now be considered worthy of being included in the most serious the concert repertoires and recording catalogues. The Ensemble "J.M. Anciuti", featuring soloists of the calibre of Stefano Montanari on violin, Claudio Rufa on transverse flute, and Paolo Pollastri on oboe, offers us a superb period-instrument performance of the composer's chamber repertoire.
In 2020 the Scarlatti boat was sailing the high seas when suddenly it hit the rocks. And so for the 30 sonatas of part 6, the crew fled like rats from a sinking ship onto dry land and into the back of beyond - where it's too boring even for Corona. Between a stack of grand pianos stored vertically, upright pianos, and in unimaginably dry acoustics, Christoff Ullrich, playing Gerd Finkenstein's familiar and beautiful grand piano, shifted time and space into a bygone world. A world that is perhaps not so distant from our own time as we might think. There were serious diseases everywhere then. Just like nowadays, that didn't stop people from caring about equally important things, such as cheering up a melancholy King! Among other things, this is what Scarlatti was employed for. Dear reader! You are the king who, in the face of the world's crises, threatens to sink into depression. Listen to this double album (for the price of one), full of an endless variety of cheerful, but also often of reflective pieces, and allow it to take your mind off things!
Domenico, son of Alessandro Scarlatti, one of the great Italian composers, was born in Naples in 1685. In a letter addressed to Ferdinand de' Medici, Alessandro says, 'This son of mine is an eagle whose wings are grown; he ought not to stay idle in the nest, and I ought not to hinder his flight.' Curiosity about distant places and love of the unexpected made him leave Italy in 1719 for London, where his opera Narciso was performed the following year. From London he went to the Iberian Peninsula. In Lisbon he was appointed Maestro of the Royal Chapel, and he guided the musical education of Princess Maria Barbara. A desire to see his father again took Scarlatti to Naples in 1724. While there, he played the harpsichord for the great composer Hasse, who was delighted and amazed. Domenico left Italy and went back to Portugal, where he resumed his position and his harpsichord lessons with the Princess Maria Barbara. It was for her that he composed harpsichord pieces which he called Esercizi. Maria Barbara worshiped her Maestro and invited him to join the royal suite when she went to Madrid in 1729. From this time on Scarlatti did not leave Spain. Scarlatti wrote 555 Sonatas for the keyboard. Composed primarily for the harpsichord, these short, single-movement pieces explore bold harmonies, rapid hand crossings, and rhythmic vitality influenced by Spanish music. Each sonata feels like a miniature experiment, full of surprising contrasts and inventive ideas. Despite their brevity, they demand great skill and sensitivity from performers. Scarlatti's music stands apart from his Baroque contemporaries, anticipating Classical clarity while retaining a distinct personality. Played by Finnish keyboard player and conductor Aapo Hakkinen. A personal note from him: 'Scarlatti is the only composer who reminds me of the playfulness of a cat, and he does not suffer from this comparison. We all have seen a kitten play with a twig. It is impossible to describe it's grace, charm, vivacity, and inventiveness. For a very serious man, these puerile marvels are, of course, useless, to say the least. After all what is the cat's aim in playing with a twig? If only it were on the lookout for a mouse, it would be useful to the household and therefore acceptable. Among all the Scarlatti sonatas which appeared the most beautiful to me, I chose to play those which according to their affinities and to my fancy form a chain and pursue a single tale of love and wild adventure.' Hakkinen plays on a famous historical instrument, the Joao Baptista Antunes 1789, located and recorded in the Museu Nacional da Musica, Lisbon, Portugal.
Domenico Scarlatti’s distinguished career included a royal post in Rome where he competed against Handel, the latter being declared the better organist and Scarlatti the better harpsichordist. Written for his pupil the Infanta Maria Bárbara, Scarlatti’s legacy of hundreds of single-movement keyboard sonatas forms a valuable resource for performers today. This collection includes a wealth of Spanish dances with virtuoso leaps, unusual modulations, flourishes and ornamentation, as well as Scarlatti’s irrepressible verve and energy. Critically acclaimed Steinway Artist Sergio Monteiro was born in Niterói, Brazil. In 2003 he was awarded First Prize at the 2nd Martha Argerich International Piano Competition in Buenos Aires, and has since appeared in prestigious venues across Asia, Europe and the Americas, including the Toronto Centre for the Arts (now the Meridian Arts Centre), The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the Konzerthaus and the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Steinway Halls of New York and Beijing, and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. He has appeared in concert with major orchestras including the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, and the Buenos Aires, Lübeck and Dresdner Philharmonics under conductors such as Charles Dutoit and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. In 2020, in honor of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, Monteiro will perform the complete cycle of piano sonatas over eight recitals.
Scarlatti: Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 8 / Ullrich
TACET Musikproduktion
CD
$23.99Jan 06, 2023
Sometimes time flies by. For example, when something stimulating happens all the time, as here with the new volume No. 8 of the complete recording of all 555 sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. And not because of the two organ sonatas, which are actually played here on an organ, nor because of the acoustics at the new recording venue Marienmünster. Once again, Christoph Ullrich is exclusively responsible for these stimuli, and he knows how to shape these gems, which seem to have been written for him, with such never-ending imagination, exuberant ideas, nuances that always seem spontaneous but are nevertheless carefully woven, that two hours go by like two shooting stars.
Venetian Cello Sonatas. Under the Shade of Vivaldi
Arcana
CD
$20.99Aug 23, 2019
A tireless explorer of territories off the beaten track, Gaetano Nasillo has already addressed Venetian music with a memorable album devoted to composer and 'musico di violoncello' Antonio Caldara (A356). This new album brings us back to Venice to discover cello virtuosos and sonatas between Vivaldi and Tartini. 'In the late seventeenth century the bass member of the violin family underwent an evolution to become the instrument we know as the violoncello. Within a few decades, Venice and it's republic became an important centre of composition for the new instrument, whose popularity steadily increased, reaching a peak in the 1730s and 1740s. In his recorded anthology of sonatas for the instrument the cellist Gaetano Nasillo has selected eight works by eight different composers with a connection to La Serenissima. One composer, Antonio Vivaldi, is extremely well known; two, Benedetto Marcello and Giovanni Benedetto Platti, are slightly known; the remaining five - Girolamo Bassani, Diogenio Bigaglia, Antonio Martinelli, Antonio Vandini and Michele Stratico - are hardly known at all, and this premiere recording of their sonatas reveals the high quality and simple enjoyability of their music.' - Michael Talbot
Cervetto: 6 Sonatas for 3 Violoncellos / Zeller, Frezzato
MV Cremona
CD
$19.99Jun 02, 2017
Six Sonatas or Trios for three Violoncellos or two Violins and a Bass, is the title of op. 1, published in London by Giacobo Basevi Cervetto between 1741 and 1745 circa. To the modern ear, it is curious to hear the terms sonata and trio referred to as synonyms: in fact, the genre – which in effect did experience a certain confusion regarding the terminology – is known today as the sonata a tre. As Cervetto was a cello concert musician, it is not surprising that his sonatas were composed for three violoncellos (two cellos and bass); the alternative of playing them with two violins was probably dictated by commercial reasons in order to interest a vaster public. We maintain that it is important to rediscover these sonatas who are little known to the public of today. These wonderful and unusual Sonatas are played on original instruments by Martin Zeller & Marco Frezzato.
The place of Domenico Scarlatti in the history of 18th century music is certainly exceptional. This exquisite and imaginative group of works is included in the fourteenth volume of Scarlatti’s manuscript sonatas preserved in the Marciana Library in Venice. Although known as keyboard sonatas, research reveals that they were very likely to have been conceived for performance on the violin – multi-movement works, often showing the presence of figured bass accompaniment, rapid changes of register and numerous passages better suited to a violin than a keyboard instrument all support the theory. This is flashy and virtuosic writing for violin at its finest.
Renaud Capucon/Kit Armstrong -"Mozart: Sonatas For Piano & Violin" / This box set of 16 Sonatas for Violin and Piano played by Renaud Capucon and Kit Armstrong showcases the brilliance of Mozart's chamber music. Mozart's mastery of both instruments is evident in his compositions. 4 CD Box-Set
From the virtuoso Essercizi (K.12 and 15) to the touching cantabile eloquence of the Sonata in G major, K.144, most of the repertoire on this album consists of lesser-known works incorporating elements of dance forms from Spain and Portugal, with the Sonata (Fuga) in D minor heard here in its world premiere recording.
This is a recording to bring pleasure. Thirteen Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, taken from the same volume of manuscripts of the Queen of Spain, kept in Venice. Some of these sonatas are very famous, some are rarely played, but all are very beautiful: joyful, poetic, almost always sunny, sometimes melancholic. Brussels based French harpsichordist, Frédérick Haas' passion for the harpsichord started in earlychildhood and he began playing at the age of twelve. He studied the harpsichord, organ and musicology at Paris and Amsterdam, and was enriched by regular contact with important original instruments and the workshops of harpsichord builders and restorers, and at master classes. At the age of 26, he recorded his first solo album, dedicated to the harpsichord suites by J.H. Anglebert.
Frédéric D’oria-Nicolas writes: “Over nearly twenty years, I have given hundreds of concerts as both a soloist and with chamber ensembles. I was lucky enough to fulfil many dreams: studying with Tatiana Zelikman in Moscow; discovering and performing true masterpieces; playing on extraordinary instruments in fabulous acoustic settings; and sharing the stage with many first-rate musicians who have left me with lasting memories, including pianist Alexander Kobrin, baritone Laurent Naouri, violinists Svetlin Roussev and Alena Baeva, and cellists François Salque and Boris Andrianov. But complete mastery of a concert program for any given performance means playing it time and time again in public. And to do that, one must accept a certain lifestyle, one that leaves little time for family and for exploring other passions. Now that I am the father of two little boys, I often play hide and seek. I also regularly don an Indiana Jones outfit of a new type, and I set off to track down forgotten recordings of legendary artists. Discovering these treasure chests that have remained unopened for decades, sharing such special times with the descendants of Navarra, Gilels and Peterson, hearing these gems for the first time and then restoring them – all these joys cannot be described. At this point in time, I have no doubt that my choices, the new emotions I experience and my demands on myself mean that I cannot round out my life more fully as a concert performer, at least for the moment.”
Domenico Scarlatti, one of the most fascinating composers of the Baroque era, was born in Naples on October 26, 1685 - the same year as J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel. He was the sixth of ten children of the famous opera composer Alessandro Scarlatti. Domenico, who showed exceptional talent at an early age, began his musical journey under the guidance of his father. He became one of the most influential composers and harpsichordists of his time. Canadian-born pianist Christyna Kaczynski-Kozel presents ten of Scarlatti's highly innovative, virtuoso and technically demanding sonatas on this album. Sometimes they are characterized by a lively and upbeat character, sometimes by a melancholy mood, sometimes they are profoundly introverted or they convey a serious lyricism and melody. Many sonatas also contain folkloristic elements such as castanets or drums, guitars and hunting horn scenes. The technical difficulties are considerable: rapid key changes, arpeggios, repeated notes, trills, plus large leaps spanning several octaves and hand-crossing.
The viola da gamba enjoyed a degree of popularity in Germany during the 17th century. Not only was it often paired with the violin in compositions in which the two instruments engaged in a dialogue, but it also had it's own repertoire. Johann Michael Nicolai spent most of his life in the service of the court of Stuttgart and left several compositions for ensembles of two or three violas da gamba. Here, L'Acheron presents the complete sonatas and suites, in which the spirit of the Italian sonata is combined with the French suite.
Giovanni Benedetto Platti was born in northern Italy and spent some of his youth in Venice, where his father was a violetta player at St Mark’s, before he received his court appointment as an oboist and violinist at the court chapel of Würzburg in 1722. Two years later, the music-loving and cello-playing count of Schönborn, Rudolf Franz Erwein, had managed to secure him as a musician for his own household at his small residence in the county of Wiesentheid. Platti composed - in addition to his ordinary ouptut for worldly and spiritual occasions - for the cello, the Count’s favourite instrument: a dozen sonatas, 28 concerti, 6 duets and over 21 trio sonatas in which the two melodic instruments are not playing at the same height. The music collection of the counts of Schönborn-Wiesentheid very probably consists of Erwein’s personal music library and is today an important historical music archive. Radio Antiqua present in partly world premiere six trio sonatas from that collection, which the count could presumably have played with Platti.
The rationale of the programme presented by the Labirinto Armonico Ensemble is of a purely geographic nature: it offers a selection of works by three composers who were active in very different contexts between the beginning of the seventeenth century and the end of the eighteenth, but were united by the fact that they were all three natives of Abruzzi. Michele Mascitti, prominent violinist and composer, played a fundamental role in spreading the Italian style in France, making his fortune in Paris where he carried out his musical career; from there his fame extended to England and the Netherlands. Fedele Fenaroli, on the other hand, was a very important teacher and appreciated by Giuseppe Verdi for his treaty on the “Partimenti.” Giacomo Fornaci is the oldest of the three composers, of which only the collection of arias from included in this album have survived.
Scarlatti & The Neapolitan Song - Sonatas & Canzonas / Calandra, Cera
Brilliant Classics
CD
$13.99Feb 26, 2013
Domenico Scarlatti, the sixth child of the celebrated composer Alessandro Scarlatti, was a prolific keyboard composer, and is best known today for his 555 sonatas for keyboard. Domenico was employed by various members of European royalty and nobility in Italy, Spain and Portugal throughout his career. His style was unusual and innovative, but very few of his works were published during his lifetime.
The disc combines several of Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas with Neapolitan songs by various composers of the era, exploring the influences of these songs on Scarlatti’s sonatas. Scarlatti’s style is notable for its improvisatory nature as well as its incorporation of elements of Spanish and Portuguese folk music (the composer having spent time in Lisbon, Seville and Madrid), and among the Neapolitan songs featured on the disc is the immensely popular Lo guarracino, a fast?talking and high?spirited number that narrates the story of a fish, and the lilting La Nova Gelosia. Two extracts from operas – ‘So’ li sorbe e le nespole amare’ from Leonardo Vinci’s Lo cecato fauzo and ‘Chi disse ca la femmena’ from Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Lo frate ‘nnamorato – are also present, both of which feature a light?hearted portrayal of women. Out of the many versions of the song Quanno nascette ninno, the one by the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare was chosen for this disc, thanks to its fascinating minor modulation.
Acclaimed harpsichordist Francesco Cera is considered one of Italy’s foremost interpreters of early music. He has toured all over the world and his recordings include interpretations of 17th?century keyboard sonatas, French suites and harpsichord concertos by J.S. Bach. Italian soprano Letizia Calandro’s repertoire includes Neapolitan songs alongside the more traditional oeuvres of the Classical and Baroque periods. Having studied at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, she won the Spoleto Award and has performed the lead role in operas by composers as diverse as Monteverdi, Mozart and Verdi.
OTHER INFORMATION: * New recording, recorded September 2009, Chisea di S. Anatolia, Colle di Tora, Rieti, Italy. * Extensive liner notes included in English and Italian. * Sung texts available on the Brilliant Classics website.
This CD is the first of three albums of music by Giovanni Benedetto Platti, on which we plan to record all twelve cello sonatas and the harpsichord sonatas Op. 1. We are delighted to have found in Platti an interesting and little-known composer whose music is fascinating to explore. Giovanni Benedetto Platti is a classic example of one of the many underestimated composers of the 18th century. Today, his name is familiar only to specialists and his music known to but a very few, yet his work is well worth discovering. A factotum at the Wurzburg court, he wrote eminently attractive sonatas and concertos for oboe, cello, harpsichord and flute, as well as larger scale works including an interesting Requiem. The twelve cello sonatas have survived in a manuscript dated 1725 from the collection of Count von Schonborn in Wiesentheid. They all have four movements and are characterised, as so often in Platti, by a compact and stringent compositional style. Hardly any single movement takes up more than a transverse page of the score, and many of the slow movements only half a page. Born in South Tyrol, Alex Jellici studied the cello in his home town of Bolzano, then in Florence, Vienna and Zurich under Luca Fiorentini, Giovanni Gnocchi and Orfeo Mandozzi. Further studies in baroque cello and viola da gamba followed under Martin Zeller at the Zurich University of the Arts. Matias Lanz has been organist at the Winterthur Veltheim Reformed Church since 2013. He has also been active as a tango pianist for several years. In 2022, together with bandoneonist Jens Biedermann, he founded Tango Bodegon, a cuarteto tipico dedicated to the performance of traditional Argentinian tango. He has attended tango masterclasses with Roger Helou, Pablo Estigarribia, Leonardo Ferreyra and Rodolfo Mederos.
