Sonatas by Baldassare Galuppi

"Colors of Venice" - a program that bring in foreground the music of this composer born in 1706 on the island of Burano in (Venice). BaldassareGaluppi was part of a generation of illustrious musicians, whose creations are emblematic of the gallant musical style developed during the 18th century in Europe. The famous music critic Charles Burney wrote in 1770 about Baldassare Galuppi that "he is one of the most brilliant musicians that Italy has seen, a good contrapuntist and a friend of poetry; and his compositions are ingenious and natural". Baldassare Galuppi was internationally successful and spent different periods of his life in London, Vienna and Berlin, but always returned to Venice, where he died in 1785. In this city he composed most of his scores - whether we are talking about operas, sacred or instrumental works, which created a way to the classical style by abandoning excessive contrapuntal work, using mainly homophonic structures or accompanied monodies. Six of BaldassareGaluppi's harpsichord sonatas are included on the album released on January 27th, 2023 by MargheritaTorretta - a talented Italian musician based in London.

Margheritaq Torretta studied at the Conservatories of Piacenza, Milan and Lugano. At the age of 18, the Italian pianist suffered from a devastating fire that changed her perception of life, as she herself testifies; since then she dedicated herself to the piano, but she also expresses her personality through other artistic fields - such as dance, poetry, photography and design. MargheritaTorretta sustained concerts and recitals on stages in more than 20 countries - Carnegie Hall in New York, Chopin Hall in Warsaw and Verdi Auditorium in Milan being just some of the halls where she was applauded. In 2020, the pianist released her debut album, dedicated to the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, and at the beginning of this year, the musician released her second CD, on the same record label Academy Classical Music, an album with which the artist continues her foray in Italian baroque music, charming us with an expressive, refined interpretation, like the Colors of Venice, which the pianist evokes through the music of Baldassare Galuppi.

"Pianist MargheritaTorreta reproduces the poetic spirit and expressiveness of Baldassare Galuppi's sonatas, leaving the music flow elegantly and develop" - quoted from the critic Remy Franck's review for the Pizzicato publication, rightly admiring the performance of the pianist born in 1986. It is a rarity to be able to listen to the music of the pre-classical Baldassare Galuppi played on the piano - an instrument which, although it did not exist at the time of the Italian composer, reveals in a perhaps more convincing way the rhythmic incisiveness, lyricism and dynamic contrasts of these sonatas. The pieces show variety both structurally and stylistically - some retain Scarlatti's patterns and are created in one part, others have the tripartite structure later adopted by Haydn and other classical composers. These works in manuscript form were dispersed in numerous collections and libraries on the European territory; only the first two sets of sonatas were published during the composer's lifetime, in London. The others captured the attention of musicians gradually, being discovered since the beginning of the last century. The collection that the pianist MargheritaTorretta chose for her disc was published for the first time in 1969 in Rome, by the Italian publishing house De Santis.