GALUPPI ORGAN SONATAS LUCA SCANDALI Sonata in C R.A. 1.1.08 Sonata in C R.A. 1.1.14 1. I. Allegro 3’47 20. (Allegro) 3’17 2. II. Andantino 5’04 3. III. Presto 3’53 Sonata in C R.A. 1.11.18 21. Andantino 4’53 Sonata in C R.A. 1.1.16 4. Allegro pieno 2’13 Sonata in A minor R.A. 1.15.02 Sonata in C R.A. 1.1.28 22. Allegro 4’01 5. (Minuetto) 1’05 Sonata in A minor R.A. 1.15.03 Sonata in G R.A. 1.11.03 23. (Siciliana) 3’22 6. I. Larghetto (with original varied reprises) 7’10 Sonata in D R.A. 1.3.15 7. II. Andante 4’57 24. Allegro assai 2’49 Sonata in G R.A. 1.11.28 25. Sonata in D R.A. 1.3.17 3’42 8. I. (Andante) 4’08 9. II. (Allegro) 2’27 Sonata in D R.A. 1.03.07 10. III. (Andante) 3’50 26. I. Largo 1’36 27. II. Allegro 5’56 Sonata in G minor R.A. 1.12.05 28. III. Allegro 3’52 11. (Andante) 5’20 Sonata in G minor R.A. 1.12.01 Sonata in D minor 29. I. Largo, Allegro 5’44 12. I. Allegro 2’26 30. II. Andante 4’22 13. II. Largo 3’43 14. III. Allegro e spiritoso 2’41 Sonata in B flat R.A. 1.16.07 31. (Allegro) 3’59 Sonata in D minor R.A. 1.4.03 15. I. Andantino 5’54 Sonata in G R.A. 1.11.33 16. II. Presto 3’44 32. (Andante) 6’28 Sonata in B flat R.A. 1.16.10 Sonata in G R.A. 1.11.11 17. Allegro 2’15 33. Allegro 4’27 Sonata in B flat R.A. 1.16.06 Sonata in C minor 18. I. Andante 6’31 34. I. Adagio 2’34 19. II. (Allegro) 3’56 35. II. Allegro 3’19 Luca Scandali organ Tracks 1-19: Gaetano Callido, 1804, Op.408, Collegiate church of San Bartolomeo Apostolo, Morrovalle (Macerata, Italy) Tracks 20-35: Gaetano Callido, 1792, Collegiate church of San Paolo, Civitanova Marche (Macerata, Italy). Restored by Michel Formentelli, Camerino (Macerata, Italy) – St. Uze (France), 2011 Baldassare Galuppi 2006. The happy outcome is that Torrefranca’s initial 51 sonatas have grown into the Known as “il Buranello” (the nickname derives 175 identified by Rossi, a remarkable increase that is also due to the fact that while from the Venetian island of Burano, where he there were only two printed editions in the 18th century, there are myriad manuscript was born in 1706; he died in Venice in 1785), copies of Galuppi’s sonatas kept in different collections throughout European and Baldassarre Galuppi enjoyed widespread fame even the Americas, some of which have only recently come to light. As Francesco during his own lifetime. He was an extremely Caffi said back in 1854, “Galuppi’s music is to be found wherever there are cultivated prolific composer, writing around one hundred people”: a declaration born out by the fact that the original scores of the composer’s operas, both comic and dramatic, a great deal sonatas are to be found in 59 different libraries! of instrumental music that included dozens of Such geographical extension can partly be explained by the fact that Galuppi harpsichord sonatas, and a rich series of sacred travelled widely in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, though he effectively resided for motets and oratorios. Much of this production most of his life in Venice. He was in London in the years 1741-43, and St Petersburg was published, spreading his reputation between 1765 and 1768, where he held the position of court chapel master and throughout Europe in a manner experienced by composer of Italian opera. few of his contemporaries. To date there are 106 Particularly significant among his earlier travels was the period he spent as a young extant printed editions of his works, divided into man in Florence, where he was appointed harpsichordist at the Teatro della Pergola 69 anthologies and 37 monographic volumes, from 1726 to 1728. Despite the fact that he was only twenty, he had already made Drawing of Baldassare Galuppi by G. Bernasconi most of them published in London (70 editions), a name for himself as a keyboard player. This skill was something he continued to and then Paris (17), and in many European cities, exercise for the rest of his life, also as a church organist. Indeed, in 1722 a certain especially during the decade 1760-70. “Baldissera de Buran” was taken on by the church of S. Maria Formosa in Venice Operas such as L’arcadia in Brenta (1749), Il mondo della luna (1750) and above with “universal satisfaction”, and it more than likely that this was Galuppi at the all Il filosofo di campagna (1754), all of them on librettos by Carlo Goldoni, are age of sixteen, already an expert organist. Once again Caffi lends weight to the well known and regularly performed. However, there is still much to be discovered, hypothesis, albeit without mentioning the event directly, when he declares that “very and not only in the operatic repertoire, but also in the vast collection of instrumental early on he was engaged playing the organs in the churches”. and sacred works. This rediscovery dates back to the early 20th century with the Galuppi’s engagements as a church musician – chapel master or organist – first efforts at bringing to light Galuppi’s keyboard sonatas, thanks to the studies by continued over a space of more than 60 years, from the 1722 appointment at S. Fausto Torrefranca (1909), who produced an initial catalogue of the sonatas. This Maria Formosa mentioned above through to that of chorus master at the Mendicanti list was progressively enriched over the following decades, on the basis of research (1740-51), deputy chapel master, then chapel master at S. Marco (1748-1785), and carried out by Charles van den Borren (1923), Felix Raabe (1929), Hedda Illy (1969), lastly chorus master at the Incurabili (1762-76). Moreover, Charles Burney, who met David Pullmann (1972), and the more recent catalogue compiled by Franco Rossi in Galuppi in Venice in 1770, added two other assignments, reporting that he received “a hundred sequins a year as domestic organist to the family of Gritti, and is organist In 1784 the German poet and writer Christian Schubart (1739-1791) made an of another church, of which I have forgot the name”. interesting appraisal of Galuppi. Schubart was also an exponent of the gallant style, Over and above the general fact that harpsichord compositions were usually well albeit in the German version of Sturm und Drang, which was more intense and pre- suited to the organ, the continuity of Galuppi’s engagements as organist certainly romantic than its essentially cheerful Italian equivalent. In his essay Ideen zu einer suggests that his sonatas were also conceived to be played on this latter instrument. Aesthetik der Tonkunst (Ideas for the Aesthetics of Art – published posthumously So although the wording “cembalo” (harpsichord) is more frequent, in reality until in 1806), Schubart recognized in Galuppi’s work “a consummate simplicity and the early years of the 1800s this term was used to indicate a keyboard instrument in pleasantness of melody, rich in invention, natural – unaffected – modulation, and general, including the organ and the increasingly popular fortepiano as well as the magnificent harmonic sense”. harpsichord. During the years 1770-1780 it was increasingly common for printed The purported simplicity of Galuppi’s way of composing is actually only a surface editions of keyboard scores to declare in the heading that they were for harpsichord effect, due to the clearly vocal approach to writing music that tend to avoid rigid and fortepiano, and sometimes also organ: this was not simply a commercial purpose, solutions and instead encourage performance that is closer to rhetorical statement. but also a reflection of current practice. As we have already pointed out, Galuppi’s sonatas met with widespread acclaim, An overview of Galuppi’s many works for the keyboard reveals that the definition which accounts for the fact that manuscripts of his music are still found in numerous “sonata” is used for considerably differing formal structures. These range from far-flung libraries. By contrast, there were only two printed editions, both of them the short sonatas in one movement to compositions of increasing complexity in 2, published by Walsh in London, which was then the most important centre for the 3 or even 4 movements. In their turn, the individual movements embrace various publication of European instrumental music. The first collection, indicated as Op.1, types, ranging from those lacking in subdivisions to others in the bipartite form: the came out in 1756, followed three years later by Op.2; and both contained 6 sonatas. first part ends with a modulation to the dominant, while the second starts from the Outstanding among the manuscript works is the collection of 6 sonatas composed in dominant and goes back to the tonic. Moreover, there are also sonatas that consist 1781, which Galuppi himself entitled Passatempo al cembalo (Harpsichord Pastimes). of three parts, with two analogous outer sections and a contrasting central one that Now kept in the library of the Conservatory in Genoa, these works probably differs in character, tempo and themes. correspond to the collection that Galuppi presented as a gift to Paul Petrovich, son The overall style belongs to what is usually referred to as the Italian “gallant of Catherine the Great, who visited Galuppi with his wife in January 1782 and style”, based on the juxtaposition of melody and accompaniment, but without the succeeded his mother as Tzar of Russia in 1796.