Sonatas for 2 Violins & Bass : Raule(Vn)Peiretti(Vc)Peiretti(Cemb)

Galuppi: Sei sonate a tre a due violini e basso continuo

Abramo Raule, violin
Alessandro Peiretti, cello
Rita Peiretti, harpsichord

Recorded: 11/2010

Baldassarre Galuppi occupies an outstanding position in the history of Venetian music in the eighteenth century.
He left us a certain number of instrumental compositions (several published on CDs by Dynamic), including the eight Concertos for harpsichord and strings, the seven Concertos a quattro for strings and these six Sonatas a tre for two violins and basso continuo, recorded here for the first time.
These Sonate a tre reveal a composer with an excellent mastery of counterpoint, capable of blending the novelties of the modern ”style galant” with a sensitivity for construction rooted in the great baroque tradition. The six Sonatas have come down to us in a single, non-autograph manuscript, in separate parts, held at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. All the Sonatas are in three movements, arranged Allegro-Adagio-Allegro.
Indeed, we do not know their date or place of composition, Galuppi’s only contribution to the most fashionable and frequently performed chamber genre throughout much of the eighteenth century, which then declined progressively in the second half of the century as the use of the basso continuo disappeared making room for the more modern string trio. His only contribution, but as ever in Galuppi’s work, of high musical quality, where one does not know what to be more impressed by: the ease of his style, capable of hiding the science of construction behind pleasant galant manners, or the fresh appeal of sharp, witty invention, where the old and the new are balanced as can only be found in the music of the great. ( Dynamic )