Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785)
Wonder in Venice – Sonatas and concertos for harpsichord
La Filarete/Arianna Radaelli (harpsichord)
rec. June 2023, St Pantaleonkirche, Nuglar-St. Pantaleon, Switzerland
Reviewed as a download
Arcana A579 [70]

After the death of Antonio Vivaldi, Baldassare Galuppi was the most fashionable composer from Venice and his career started to blossom. Such was his reputation that some of Vivaldi’s compositions were sold under his name in order to increase sales. His father was a barber who also played the violin in small orchestras, and was probably his first teacher. Galuppi wasn’t devoid of self-confidence; aged 16 he composed his first music, a so-called favola pastorale, but according to a contemporary witness it was a fiasco. It did not prevent him from continuing to compose, especially music for the theatre. His skills certainly improved thanks to his studies with Antonio Lotti. Aged twenty, he was already a keyboard player of repute, and not only played in various opera orchestras but also composed substitute arias for operas by other composers. His first successes in the field of opera and oratorio date from the late 1730s.

Galuppi adapted Neapolitan comic operas to the taste of the Venetian audience but also contributed some of his own. Evidence of his growing status was his appointment as vicemaestro of the Cappella Ducale of San Marco in 1748. This and his activities in various Ospedali resulted in a large output of sacred music, although his main interest was opera. This led to the invitation to travel to St Petersburg in 1765 where he produced a number of operas which found great approval; he also had a strong influence on the style of composition in sacred music in Russia. He returned to Venice in 1768, and after that concentrated on sacred music.

Among his instrumental works keyboard music takes first place.  Between sonatas and concertos, Galuppi’s compositions for keyboard, with or without instruments, number at least four hundred, according to the liner-notes. Twelve sonatas for harpsichord were printed as Op. 1 and Op. 2 respectively in London. Three further sonatas were included in collections which were printed in Nuremberg. The largest part of his keyboard works has been preserved in manuscript. The present disc includes five sonatas. It is interesting to read the liner-notes to this disc, in which Elia Pivetta puts Galuppi’s keyboard music into its historical context.

None of his keyboard works have been preserved in autograph. This can be explained by the fact that at the time keyboard music was usually improvised. “During an academy or a banquet, any accomplished eighteenth-century master could sit at the keyboard and entertain the guests without a written score.” What has come down to us under Galuppi’s name was mostly copied under the composer’s supervision, “perhaps to allow noblewomen to enjoy playing them too”, and as music could be copied on and on, as no such thing as copyright existed, it is no wonder that movements could appear in different contexts. “This explains why today one might encounter the same Allegro from

a sonata as a standalone piece in one manuscript, as the first movement of a three-part sonata in another, or as the second movement of a four-part sonata in yet another.” For scholars and performers of our time this is a bit of a nightmare, and this may explain why Galuppi’s keyboard works are not that often performed.

It is useful here to point to a few recordings that deserve attention. The Op. 1, mentioned above, has been recorded by Andrea Chezzi (review). A large collection of sonatas was released in 2012 by Newton Classics, in performances by Ilario Grigoletto (review). In comparison the selection on this disc is rather modest, but especially as the four sonatas are followed by two concertos, it is a good introduction to Galuppi’s keyboard oeuvre.

It is notable how much these sonatas vary in structure and style. The programme opens with a Sonata in F, which is in three movements. The first is a melody with accompaniment, whereas the second, with its full chords, has orchestral traits. The next two sonatas, in D minor and D major respectively, comprise just one movement, and are very much reminiscent of Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas. His influence is unmistakeable.

The Sonata in G minor is a mixture of old and new. The first of the three movements has some passages in counterpoint and improvisatory traces. The second movement opens in what seems to be a fugue, but that is never worked out. The Sonata in B flat is in two movements. The opening larghetto shows some similarity with the keyboard music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, especially the Sturm und Drang part of it, for instance in the sudden pauses.

The disc closes with two concertos for harpsichord and strings. Seven such works of Galuppi’s pen are known. They have been preserved in two places: the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and the Sächsische Landesbibliothek in Dresden. These works should not be treated as orchestral music. They are concertos for performances in intimate surroundings, and both Arianna Radaelli and Roberto Loreggian, who recorded them complete (review), are accompanied by one instrument per part.

The two concertos included here are from the Paris library. They are in three movements in the usual order. Like the harpsichord sonatas, they are different in style. The opening movement of the Concerto in C minor shows again similarity with CPE Bach’s nervous style. It includes drum basses, a feature of many works from the mid-18th century. The second movement has a dream-like atmosphere, and is a perfect demonstration of the galant idiom. It closes with a cadenza. The concerto ends with a brisk allegro ma non presto.

The galant idiom is then again demonstrated in the Concerto in F. The strings are almost constantly in action in the two fast movements. The slow movement, marked grave, shows that galant music is not necessarily devoid of expression.

It is interesting to note that the low string bass in these concertos is marked violotto, “an Italian instrument with 5 strings used in the first half of the 18th century. The violotto belonged to the viola da gamba family but was larger, with a rounder, deeper sound that was capable of sustaining the bass line on its own and adding a lightness of touch that contrasted with the usual combination of cello and double bass”, Roberto Loreggian writes in the ‘artist’s notes’ in the booklet to his recording, in which the violotto is used instead of cello and double bass. Unfortunately, this is not discussed in the booklet to the present recording and is ignored in the line-up of the ensemble, where the string bass part is shared by cello and violone.

That is the only – and minor- issue concerning this disc. As I mentioned, it is a good introduction to Galuppi’s keyboard music and should convince sceptical music lovers that it deserves to be better-known. Arianna Radaelli is the perfect advocate. She is a brilliant player, whom I had the pleasure to hear live at the Utrecht Festival Early Music 2025, a few weeks prior to my writing this review, where she played an extract from this disc as an encore. The ornamentation and cadenzas are substantial additions to the material. She treats the tempi with some freedom, and that makes the performances all the more interesting and compelling. She deserves praise for her selection of pieces, as they show the variety in Galuppi’s keyboard oeuvre. La Filarete may be her own ensemble, which is the ideal companion in the concertos.

Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
https://bsky.app/profile/musicadeidonum.bsky.social

Contents
Sonata in F major (R.A.1.8.06)
Sonata in D minor (R.A.1.04.02)
Sonata in D (R.A.1.03.01)
Sonata in G minor (R.A.1.12.01)
Sonata in B flat (R.A.1.16.05)
Concerto in C minor
Concerto in F

Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free