Giovanni Battista GRAZIOLI (1746-1828)
12 Harpsichord Sonatas, Opp. 1 & 2 (1780)
Theme and variations in B flat [6:57]
Pastorale in C (for organ) [10:53]
Chiara Minali (harpsichord, organ)
rec. August 2019, Chiesa della SS. Trinita, Monte Oliveto, Italy; September 2019, Church of Paderno di Ponzano, Italy (Pastorale)
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 95935 [76:24 + 79:02]
I always look forward to hearing the music of an eighteenth-century composer whose name I have met but of whose actual music I have heard little or none. Over the years a number of issues from Brilliant Classics have given me a rewardingly pleasant surprise in that regard. Unfortunately, I have to report that these new discs were something of a disappointment.
I think I first came across Grazioli more than forty years ago when reading in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The Reading Room I usually used was full to overflowing, so I made my way to the Music Reading Room which turned out to be much quieter. By mid-afternoon, I wanted a break from my work (reading and making notes on a new book about John Donne I had been asked to review), so I browsed the music books on the shelves. In a reference book (I can’t now remember which one, though I think it was in Italian), I came across the name of Giovanni Battista Grazioli – who appeared to have been primarily a composer of sacred music. It was a new name to me, and when I mentioned it, a few days later, to two postgraduates who were specialists in the music of the Eighteenth Century, neither of them recognized the name. By some quirk of psychology that actually made me remember the name! I retained a desire to find a recording of his music.
Seeking to find out a little more about Grazioli when approaching these new discs was not easy, given the closure of so many libraries due to the Covid epidemic; however, my continuing (honorary) association with Swansea University did enable me to find, amongst its online resources, the e-book version of Bertil Van Boer’s Historical Dictionary of Music of the Classical Period (Scarecrow Press, 2012) which contains a short entry on Grazioli. That entry confirms the predominance of sacred music in the composer’s output. It mentions these twelve sonatas and six further sonatas for violin and harpsichord, but only after noting that Grazioli’s output included 2 cantatas, 15 Masses, 50 Mass movements, 69 Psalms, 50 motets and two litanies.
Grazioli was born (lucky man!) at Bogliaco di Gargnano, on the shores of Lake Garda. He became in time a student, in Venice, of the organist and composer Fernando Bertoni (1725-1783). Bertoni was first organist at San Marco in Venice from 1752. He took leave from San Marco between 1778-1783/4, so as to conduct and write operas at the King’s Theatre in London and, at his suggestion, his (former?) student Grazioli was invited to replace him temporarily. Not long after Bertoni’s eventual return to Venice, Baldassare Galuppi, maestro di cappella at San Marco died. In the ensuing round of ‘musical chairs’ Bertoni replaced Galuppi as maestro di cappella and Grazioli was appointed first organist of San Marco; he seems to have held that position until his death in February of 1828. While both Galuppi and Bertoni composed operas, Grazioli seems never to have had any involvement in the theatre.
I have still yet to hear any of Grazioli’s sacred music, and I had heard only a very little of his keyboard music, prior to receiving this disc. In her booklet essay Chiara Minali describes the music as restrained, elegant and well-proportioned; she suggests that “the organization and purposeful design evident in his sonatas reflect what Newman described as the structural propriety typical of the classical age”. Minali concludes her essay thus: “This recording is intended as a homage to a composer who has been wrongly neglected. Grazioli’s musical ideas speak for elegance, refinement and restraint, providing us with a richer view of Venetian music of the period”. I suspect that Minali’s language and attitude underplay how much of the baroque there still was in Grazioli’s writing.
Minali’s tempi often feel somewhat rushed and the rhythms seem too often interrupted to be thought of as elegant above all else. I regret to say that Ms. Minali doesn’t make an especially persuasive case for Grazioli’s keyboard music having been “wrongly neglected”. In her readings too many of the pieces are rather lacking in character, so that everything sounds much of a muchness. Some of this may be Grazioli’s fault. Of the 12 sonatas all follow almost exactly the same basic pattern – Allegro-Andante-Allegro – with only minor differences of emphasis; the one exception comes with Op.2 no.5 which opens with a movement marked Moderato and closes with one marked Tempo di Minuetto. Major keys dominate throughout.
Although I found these discs disappointing (probably, in part, because I had fanciful expectations as to how good Grazioli’s music would be), I don’t wish to be wholly negative about either the composer or the performer. There is some pleasure to be had. The Allegro which opens Op.2 No.2, for example, begins vivaciously and retains its sparkle throughout. The opening movement (Allegro Cantabile) of Op.1. No.3 has some engaging moments. Most of Grazioli’s slow movements have their charms. Indeed, it is mostly in those movements that Chiara Minali is heard at her best. The Adagio of Op.2 No.6, for example, is genuinely affecting and Minali’s phrasing is very attractive in the Larghetto of Op.2 No.5.
It has to be said, however, that the ‘B flat theme and variations’ are rather dull, somewhat ponderous and unimaginative in terms of the variations Grazioli invents. Nor is the Organ Pastorale which closes the second disc very distinctive or inventive. The use of parallel thirds and sixths seems both restrictive (from Grazioli’s point of view) and blandly predictable (from the listener’s point of view).
This isn’t, then, a pair of discs than can be recommended with any great enthusiasm. I do, however, continue in the hope of hearing some of Grazioli’s sacred music – the area of his work which his contemporaries most admired.
Glyn Pursglove
Contents
CD1
Harpsichord Sonatas, Op. 1
Sonata No. 1 in F
1. Allegro [2:51]
2. Andantino [3:22]
3. Allegro [2:18]
Sonata No.2 in G
4. Allegro [3:52]
5. Adagio [3:07]
6. Allegretto [2:55]
Sonata No.3 in B flat
7. Allegro cantabile [4:01]
8. Adagio [3:35]
9. Allegro [2:49]
Sonata No. 4 in C
10. Allegro moderato [4:02]
11. Andantino [3:45]
12. Allegro [2:49]
Sonata No.5 in A Major
13. Allegro [4:14]
14. Adagio [3:22]
15. Presto [3:17]
Sonata No. 6 in D
16. Allegro [3:43]
17. Adagio [5:21]
18. Allegro [3:35]
Harpsichord Sonatas, Op. 2
Sonata No. in F
19. Cantabile [5:18]
20. Adagio [4:37]
21. Presto [2:30]
CD2
Sonata No.2 in B flat
1. Allegro [3:55]
2. Larghetto [4:55]
3. Allegro [2:30]
Sonata No.3 in C
4. Allegro [3:53]
5. Andantino [3:14]
6. Allegro [3:30]
Sonata No.4 in A
7. Allegro [4:14]
8. Larghetto [4:16]
9. Allegro [3:39]
Sonata No.5 in G
10. Moderato [5:29]
11. Adagio [6:13]
12. Tempo di Minuetto [3:06]
Sonata No.6 in F
13. Allegro [4:07]
14. Adagio [5:27]
15. Presto [2:34]
16. Theme and Variations in B flat [6:57]
17. Pastorale in C [10:53]
