MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


 REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS


Baldassare GALUPPI (1706-1785)
Piano Sonatas
Sonata in G major 'Del Signor Buranello', Levi CF B 130 (Allegro) [3:51]
Sonata in C major (Adagio, Allegro) [10:52]
Sonata in D minor (Andantino, Presto) [8:44]
Sonata in B flat major (Larghetto, Allegro) [8:21]
Sonata in C minor (Allegro moderato, Allegretto) [11:17]
Sonata in A minor (Siciliana, Allegro) [6:19]
Sonata in B flat major, 'Sonata à Cimbelo del Sig.r Baldassar Galuppi', Levi CF 26 (Andante, Presto) [14:40]
Sonata in B flat major, 'Buranello All.°', Levi CF 26 (Allegro, Presto) [4:33]
Andrea Bacchetti (piano)
rec. 2007, Fazioli Concert Hall, Sacile, Italy. DDD
BMG-RCA RED SEAL 88697367932 [68:50]
Experience Classicsonline

A rather poorly-translated printed essay in gushing Italian comes with this welcome CD. On the disc a fuller version of the same text exists as a pdf. Both versions make the case for Baldassare Galuppi - who lived from 1706 to 1785 in the Venice area - as a 'wrongfully neglected genius'. So he may be. The playing, on a modern piano, leaves little doubt. Galuppi's melodies are flowing, original and beautiful. His sense of harmony is adventurous and solid. His lyrical structures are both light-handed and of great substance. Above all, there is a wistful originality in the composer's construction of the eighteenth century solo sonata that communicates far more than the form, as then conceived, suggested it would.

Only from the pdf version of the notes is it really clear that, although several of these lovely sonatas appear to be incomplete, they do in fact consist of one or two movements only. The B Flat Major, the last in the recital, is set out ambiguously - in the CD player the last four tracks show as if from the same work; yet the printed notes list them as two movements from each of two separate sonatas. In fact they share the same last movement. It's the one which was regularly included by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in his concerts as a concerto in its own right … "Presto di Galuppi".

This raises the chief note of caution regarding this Red Seal CD. Galuppi can perhaps best be understood as a composer - like C.P.E. Bach - who was working during the transition from the Baroque to Classical periods. Some of his faster movements have an intensity worthy of J.S. Bach (like the C Major's allegro [tr.3]). Some of the slower ones - the other B Flat Major's larghetto [tr.6], for example - almost remind one of Liszt! Hence a modern piano is not the best instrument to convey the full richness in sound of these works. Passage work, ornamentation and arpeggios in particular are all diminished. They're compressed such that we cannot really appreciate the texture, the relationship - even - of groups of notes one to another. In the slower movements, the resonance of the piano masks the plaintive and delicate tenor of the intended phrasing. This has to be a disincentive against getting this CD.

On the other hand, Bacchetti's approach is stylish and sensitive. He's otherwise an elegant ambassador for Galuppi's … genius. He's clearly in sympathy with the spirit and aims of Galuppi and very much at home in his idiom. What's more, given that there are few other similar recordings of this repertoire, you may be tempted to overlook such objections and investigate this CD anyway. It's not a question of authenticity; but of how much of the original musical intention survives the treatment.

There's little doubt that the spirit in which Andrea Bacchetti and co have approached the enterprise is a positive one. The selection has been carefully arranged to give variety and freshness between sonatas. The acoustic is appropriate: it's the hall owned by Fazioli, the makers of grand and concert pianos in Sacile near Venice.

Bacchetti was born in 1977 in Genoa and was a protégé of Karajan at his Mozarteum events. His playing has a delicacy and sensitivity from which this better-than-curio music only stands to benefit. If you can see past the unfortunate textures and sonorities - indeed the relative lack of texture and true sonority - Bacchetti's depth and real sympathy for the music is evident. But only listeners who prefer the modern sound of the piano will be repeatedly satisfied by this release.

Mark Sealey

see also review by Dominy Clements



 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.