GALUPPI Keyboard Sonatas, Vol. 2

"Galuppi’s keyboard sonatas may seem to be composed squarely in the cliches and conventions of the Galant style. Under that surface lies Galuppi’s highly distilled personal rhetoric, full of drama and imagination. Napoli employs a great deal of variety of touch and articulation to penetrate the inner workings of these sonatas. His melodic right-hand playing is relaxed, simple, and elegant." --American Record Guide, March 2012

"these works show that Galuppi was cognizant of the evolution of style during his life and used it to best advantage...[Pianist Matteo Napoli’s] playing is always finely nuanced, with expressive details emerging even during the most mechanical sequential passages. The works…seem to fit quite well on the modern piano…"--Fanfare, March 2012

Venetian composer Baldassare Galuppi’s reputation rests principally on his pioneering series of comic operas. But, trained by Antonio Lotti, Galuppi was also a keyboard player of distinction who served at the court of Catherine the Great in St Petersburg. Twelve keyboard sonatas were published during his lifetime, but Hedda Illy’s catalogue lists over 100 and reveals that Galuppi not only inherited the brilliance and panache of Domenico Scarlatti but anticipated the expressive writing of Mozart. The first volume in Matteo Napoli’s series (8.572263) was commended as “a good choice for connoisseurs of 18th century keyboard music.” (MusicWeb International)

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